<^  ' 


i 


THE 


IMPENDING  CIUSIS 


OF 


THE    SOUTH: 

HOW     TO     M  E  E  T     IT 

BY 

HINTON  EOWAN  HELPER, 

or     KORTH     CAROLINA. 


CouNTRTMKN  !  I  Bue  for  simplc  justice  at  5'our  hands, 

Naught  else  I  ask,  nor  less  will  liave  ; 

Act  right,  therefore,  and  yield  my  claim. 

Or,  by  the  great  God  that  made  all  things, 

I'll  fight,  till  from  my  bones  my  flesh  be  hack'd  \—Shakspeare. 

The  liberal  deviseth  liberal  things, 

And  by  liberal  things  shall  he  stand.— /6aj/iA. 


FIFTEENTH  THOUSAND. 

NEW-YORK: 

A.   B.   BURDICK,    No.  145   NASSAU   STREET. 

18G0. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1857,  by 

IIINTON  ROWAN  HELPER, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  tho  District  Court  of  the  United  Stales  foi  the 

Southern  District  of  New  York. 


J.  J.  Rbkd,  Printer  &  Sterbottper, 
43  &.  45  Centre  Street. 


(To 

H  E  N  II  Y    M  ,    WILLIS. 

OF    CAUFORNIA, 

FORMERLY   or    MARYLAND., 

W  O  O  13  F  O  II 13    C  .    HOLM  A  N  , 

OF    OREGON, 

FORMERLY   OF   KENTCCKT, 

MATTHEW    K.     SMITH, 

CF    WASIIIXGTON   TERRITORY, 

FORMERLY   OF    VIRGINIA, 
AND  TO  TUB 

NOX-SLAVEIIOLDING  WHITES  OF  THE  SOUTH 

GENERALLY, 

WJI  ETHER   AT   HOME    OR   ABROAD 

THIS  WORK  13  MOST  CORDIAU.Y 

DEDICATED 

BV   Til  KIR 

SINCERE  FRIEND  AND  FELLOW-CITIZEN, 

THE  AUTHOK. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2013  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://archive.org/details/impenOOhelp 


PREFACE, 


If  my  countrymen,  particularly  my  countrymen  of  the  South, 
B  ill  more  particularly  those  of  them  who  are  non-slaveholders, 
shall  peruse  this  work,  they  will  learn  that  no  narrow  and  partial 
doctrines  of  political  or  social  economy,  no  prejudices  of  early 
education  have  induced  me  to  write  it.  If,  in  any  part  of  it,  I 
have  actually  deflected  from  the  tone  of  true  patriotism  and  na- 
tionality, I  am  unable  to  perceive  the  fault.  What  I  have  com- 
mitted to  paper  is  but  a  fair  reflex  of  the  honest  and  long-settled 
convictions  of  my  heart. 

In  writing  this  book,  it  has  been  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  cast 
unmerited  opprobrium  upon  slaveholders,  or  to  display  any  special 
friendliness  or  sympathy  for  the  blacks.  I  have  considered  my  sub- 
ject more  particularly  with  reference  to  its  economic  aspects  as  re- 
gards the  whites — not  with  reference,  except  in  a  very  slight  de- 
gree, to  its  humanitarian  or  religious  aspects.  To  the  latter  side 
of  the  question,  Northern  writers  have  already  done  full  and 
timely  justice.  The  genius  uf  the  North  has  also  most  ably  and 
eloquently  discussed  the  subject  in  the  form  of  novels.  Yankee 
wives  have  written  the  most  popular  anti-slavery  literature  of 


VI  PREFACE. 

the  day.  Against  this  I  have  nothiDg  to  say  ;  it  is  all  well 
enough  for  women  to  give  the  fictions  of  slavery ;  men  should 
give  the  facts. 

I  trust  that  my  friends  and  fellow-citizens  of  the  South  will 
read  this  book — nay,  proud  as  any  Southerner  though  I  am,  I 
entreat,  I  beg  of  them  to  do  so.  And  as  the  work,  considered 
with  reference  to  its  author's  nativit}',  is  a  novelty — the  South 
being  ray  birth-place  and  my  home,  and  my  ancestry  having  resi- 
ded there  for  more  than  a  century — so  I  indulge  the  hope  that 
its  reception  by  my  fellow-Southrons  will  also  be  novel  ;  that  is 
to  say,  that  they  will  receive  it,  as  it  is  offered,  in  a  reasonable 
and  friendly  spirit,  and  that  they  will  read  it  and  reflect  upon  it 
as  an  honest  and  faithful  endeavor  to  treat  a  subject  of  enormous 
import,  without  rancor  or  prejudice,  by  one  who  naturally  comes 
within  the  pale  of  their  own  sympathies. 

An  irrepressibly  active  desire  to  do  something  to  elevate  the 
South  to  an  honorable  and  powerful  position  among  the  enlight- 
ened quarters  of  the  globe,  has  been  the  great  leading  principle 
that  has  actuated  me  in  the  preparation  of  the  present  volume ; 
and  so  well  convinced  am  I  that  the  plan  which  I  have  proposed 
is  the  only  really  practical  one  for  achieving  the  desired  end,  that 
I  earnestly  hope  to  see  it  prosecuted  with  energy  and  zeal,  until 
the  Flag  of  Freedom  shall  wave  triumphantly  alike  over  the  val- 
leys of  Virginia  and  the  mounds  of  Mississipp.. 

H.  R.  H. 

Jch   ,  1857. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

TAOA 

coMrAnisoN"  uetweex  xnE  free  and  the  slave  states..  H 
Profrress  and  Prosj)ority  of  the  Xortli — Inertness  and  Imbe- 
cibty  of  the  South — The  True  Cause  and  the  Remedy — 
Quantity  and  Vahie  of  the  Ap;ricultural  Products  of  tlie 
two  Sections — Important  Statistics — Wealth,  Revenue, 
and  Exdenditure  of  the  several  Slates — Sterling  Extracts 
and  (^leneral  Remai'ks  on  Free  and  Slave  Labor — The  Im- 
mediate Abolition  of  Slavery  the  True  Policy  of  the  South. 

CHAPTER   II. 

now  slavery  can  ee  abolished 123 

\  alue  of  Lands  in  the  Free  and  in  the  Slave  States — A  few 
Plain  Words  addressed  to  Slaveholders — The  Old  Home 
stead — Area  and  Population  of  the  several  States,  of  the 
Territories,  and  of  the  District  of  Columbia — Number  of 
Slaveholders  in  the  United  States — Abstract  of  the  Au- 
thor's Plan  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery — Oflicial  Power 
and  Desi)oti.<m  of  the  Oligarchy — Mal-treatment  of  the 
Non-slaveholding  ^Vhites — Liberal  Slavelnjlders.  and  what 
may  be  expected  of  them— Slave-driving  Democrats— Class- 
ification of  Votes  Polled  at  the  Five  Points  Precinct  in 
1850— Parts  played  by  the  Republicans,  Whigs.  Democrats, 
and  Know-Nothings  during  the  last  Presidential  Cam- 
paign—  How  and  why  Slavery  should  be  Abolished  with- 
out direct  Compensation  to  the  ^Lasters—The  American 
Colonization  Society — Emigration  to  Liberia — Ultimatum 
of  the  Non-slaveholding  Whites. 

CHAPTER  in. 

BOUTHERX    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY 188 

What  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic  thought  of  Slavery — 
Opinions  of  Washington — Jetl'erson — Madison — Monroe — 
Henrv — Pvandolph — Clay — IJt'uton — Mason — McDowell— 
Iredell— Pinkney— Leigh— Marshall— Rolling— Ch.'indler 
— Summers — Preston — Fremont  —  Blair — Maury — Rirney. 
Delaware — McLane.  Maryland — Martin.  Virginia — Bill  of 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PAQI 

Rights.  North  Carolina — Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence—Judge  Ruffin.  South  Carolina— Extracts  from 
the  Writings  of  some  of  her  more  Sensible  Sons.  Georgia 
— Gen.  Oglethorpe — Daricn  Resolutions. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

KORTHERX  TESTIMONY 235 

Opinions  of  Franklin — Hamilton — Jay — Adams — "Webster 
-Clinton— Warren— Complimentary  Allusions  to  Garrison, 
Greeley,  Seward,  Sumner,  and  others. 

CHAPTER  V. 

TESnsIONY    OF    THE    NATIONS 245 

The  Voice  of  England — Opinions  of  Mansfield — Locke — 
■  Pitt  —  Fox  —  Shakspeare— Cowper — Milton — Johnson — 
Price — E  *ckstone — Coke — Hampden — Harrington — For- 
tescue — ]^'*onghani — The  Voice  of  Ireland — Opinions  of 
Burke — 'O'urran — Extract  from  the  Dublin  University  Mag- 
azine for  December,  185G — The  Voice  of  Scotland — Opin- 
ions of  Reattie — Miller — Macknight — The  Voice  of  France 
— Opinions  of  Lafayette — Montesquieu — Louis  X — BulFon 
— Rousseau — Brissot — The  Voice  of  Germany — Opinions 
of  Grotius — Goethe — Luther — Extract  from  the  Letter  of 
a  living  German  writer  to  his  Friends  in  this  Country — 
The  Voice  of  Italy — Opinions  of  Cicero — Lactantius — Leo 
X — The  Voice  of  Greece — Opinions  of  Socrates — Aristotle 
— Polybius — Plato. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

TESTIMONY   OF   THE    CHURCHES 258 

Introductory  Remarks — Presbyterian  Testimony — Albert 
Barnes — Thomas  Scott — General  Assembly  in  1818 — Sy- 
nod of  Kentucky — Episcopal  Testimony — Bishop  Horsley 
— Bishop  Butler — Bishop  Porteus — John  Jay — Anti- 
slavery  Churchman — Baptist  Testimony — Rev.  Mr.  Bris- 
bane, of  South  Carolina — Francis  Wayland — Abraham 
Booth — Baptists  of  Virginia  in  1789 — Methodist  Testi- 
mony— John  Wesley — Adam  Clarke — Extrxcts  from  the 
Discipline  for  1784,  '85  and  '97 — Catholic  Testimony — 
Pope  Gregory  XVI — Pope  Leo  X — The  Abbe  Roynal — 
Henry  Kemp. 


CONTENTS.  IX 


CHAPTER  yil. 

iSR. 

BIBLE   TESTIMOXY 275 

The  Bible  an  Anti-Slavery  Text-book — Selected  Precepts 
and  Sayinf^s  of  the  Old  Testament — Selected  Precepts  and 
Sayinjrs  of  the  New  Testament — Irrefraf^ability  of  the  Ar- 
guments here  and  elsewhere  introduced  against  Slavery. 

CHAPTER  VIIT. 

FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE 281 

Opening  Remarks — General  Statistics  of  the  Free  and  of 
the  Slave  States — Tonnage,  Exports,  and  Imports — Pro- 
ducts of  Manufactures — Miles  of  Canals  and  Railroads  in 
Operation — Public  Schools — Libraries  other  than  Private 
— Newspapers  and  Periodicals — Hliterate  White  Adults — 
— National  Political  Power  of  the  two  Sections — Popular 
Vote  for  President  in  185G — Patents  Issued  on  New  In- 
ventions— Value  of  Church  Property — Acts  of  Benevo- 
lence— Contributions  for  the  Bible  Cause,  Tract  Cause, 
Missionary  Cause,  and  Colonization  Cause — Table  ol 
deaths  in  the  several  States  in  1850-  Number  of  Free 
White  Male  Persons  over  fifteen  years  of  age  engaged  in 
Agriculture  or  other  out-door  Labor  in  the  Slave  States — 
Falsity  of  the  Assertion  that  White  Men  cannot  cultivate 
Southern  Soil — White  Female  Agriculturists  in  North 
Carolina — Number  of  Natives  of  the  Slave  States  in  the 
Free  States,  and  of  Natives  of  the  Free  States  in  the  Slave 
States— Value  of  the  Slaves  at  .^400  per  head— List  of 
Presidents  of  the  United  States — Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court — Secretaries  of  State — Presidents  of  the  Senate — 
Speakers  of  the  House — Postmasters  General — Secretaries 
of  the  Interior — Secretaries  of  the  Treasury — Secretaries 
of  War — Secretaries  of  tlie  Navy — Result  of  the  Presiden- 
tial Elections  in  the  United  States  from  179G  to  185G — Aid 
for  Kansas — Contributions  for  the  Suflerors  in  Ports- 
mouth, Va..  during  the  Prevalence  of  the  Yellow  Fever  in 
the  Summer  of  1855 — Congressional  Representation — Cus- 
tom House  Receipts-When  the  Old  States  were  Settled  and 
the  New  Admitted  into  the  Union — First  European  Set- 
tlements in  America — Freedom  and  Slavery  at  the  Fair 
— What  Freedom  Did — What  Slavery  Did — Average  Value 
per  Acre  of  Lauds  in  the  States  of  New  York  and  North 
Carolina. 


CONTEXTS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FAOB 

COiniERCIAL   CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE 331 

^'ea  for  a  groat  Southern  Commercial  City — Impoitancc  of 
Cities  in  General — Letters  from  the  Mayors  of  sundry 
American  Cities.  North  and  South — AYealth  and  Popula- 
ticm  of  New-York.  Baltimore.  Philadelphia,  New-Orleans, 
Bf'Ston.  St.  Louis.  Brooklyn,  Charleston,  Cincinnati,  Louis- 
ville, Chicacro,  Richmond.  Providence,  Norfolk,  BufTalo, 
Savannah,  New-Bedford,  AVilmington — AVealth  Concen- 
trated at  Commorcial  Points — Boston  and  its  Business — 
Progressive  Growth  of  Cities — A  Fleet  of  Merchantmen — 
Commerce  of  Norfolk — Baltimore,  Past,  Present,  and  Fu- 
ture— Insignificance  of  Southern  Commerce — Knslavement 
of  Slaveholders  to  the  Products  of  Northern  Industry — 
Almost  Utter  Lack  of  Patrioilsra  in  Southern  Merchants 
and  Slaveholders. 

CHAPTER  X. 

FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY   THE    WAYSIDE 360 

Why  this  Work  was  not  Published  in  Baltimore— Legisla- 
tive Acts  Against  Slavery — Testimony  of  a  West  India 
Planter  to  the  Advantages  of  Free  over  Slave  Labor — The 
True  Friends  of  the  South— Slavery  Thoughtful— Signs  of 
Contrition— Progress  of  Freedom  in  the  South — Anti- 
slavery  Extracts  from  Southern  Journals — A  Riirht  Feel- 
ing in  the  Right  Quarter— The  Illiterate  Poor  Whites  of 
the  South. 

CHAPTER  XL 

BOUTHERN    LITERATURE 383 

Instances  of  Protracted  Literary  Labor— Comparative  In- 
significance of  Periodical  and  General  Literature  in  Ihe 
Southern  States— The  New-Yo?k  Tribune-Southern  Sys- 
tem of  Publishing- Book-makrng  in  America— The  Busi- 
ness of  the  Messrs.  Harper— Southern  Journals  Struggling 
for  Existence- Paucity  of  Southern  Authors— Proportion 
of  White  Adults,  over  Twenty  Yetrs  of  Age,  in  each  State, 
who  cannot  Read  and  Write,  to  .he  Whole  White  Popu-  i 

lation — Southern  Authors  Compelled  to  Seek  Northern  ' 

Publishers — Conclusion. 


CHATTER    I 

COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE    FREE   AND   THE    SLAVE    ST.vTIS. 

It  is  not  our  intention  in  this  chapter  to  enter  into  an 
elaborate  ethnographical  essay,  to  establish  peculiarities 
of  difference,  mental,  moral,  and  physical,  in  the  great 
family  of  man.  Neither  is  it  our  design  to  launch  into  a 
philosophical  disquisition  on  the  laws  and  principles  of 
light  and  darkness,  with  a  view  of  educing  any  additional 
evidence  of  the  fact,  that  as  a  general  rule,  the  rays  of 
the  sun  are  more  fructifying  and  congenial  than  the  shades 
of  night.  Nor  yet  is  it  our  purpose,  by  writing  a  formal 
treatise  on  ethics,  to  draw  a  broad  line  of  distinction  be- 
tween right  and  wrong,  to  point  out  the  propriety  of  mor- 
ality and  its  advantages  over  immorality,  nor  to  waste 
time  in  pressing  a  universally  admitted  truism  —  that  vir- 
tue is  preferable  to  vice.  Self-evident  truths  require  no 
argumentative  demonstration. 

What  we  mean  to  do  is  simply  this  :  to  take  a  survey 
of  the  relative  position  and  importance  of  the  several 
states  of  this  confederacy,  from  the  adoption  of  the  na- 
tional compact  ;  and  when,  of  two  sections  of  the  country 
starting  under  the  same  auspices,  and  with  equal  natural 
advantages,  we  find  the  one  rising  to  a  degree  of  almost 
unexampled  power  and  eminence,  and  the  other  sinking 


12  COMPARISON    BETWiEN   THt. 

into  a  state  of  comparative  imbecility  and  obscurity,  it  is 
our  determination  to  trace  out  the  causes  which  have  led 
to  the  elevation  of  the  former,  and  the  depression  of  the 
latter,  and  to  use  our  most  earnest  and  honest  endeavors 
to  utterly  extirpate  whatever  opposes  the  progress  and 
prosperity  of  any  portion  of  the  union. 

This  survey  we  have  already  made  ;  we  have  also  in- 
stituted an  impartial  comparison  between  the  cardinal 
sections  of  the  country,  north,  south,  east,  and  west ;  and 
as  a  true  hearted  southerner,  whose  ancestors  have  resided 
in  North  Carolina  between  one  and  two  hundred  years, 
and  as  one  who  would  rather  have  his  native  clime  excel 
than  be  excelled,  we  feel  constrained  to  confess  that  we 
are  deeply  abashed  and  chagrined  at  the  disclosures  of 
the  comparison  thus  instituted.  At  the  time  of  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  in  1789,  we  commenced  an  even 
race  with  the  North.  All  things  considered,  if  either  the 
North  or  the  South  had  the  advantage,  it  was  the  latter. 
In  proof  of  this,  let  us  introduce  a  few  statistics,  begin- 
ning with  the  states  of 

NEW   YORK   AND  VIRGINIA. 

In  1*190,  when  the  fiist  census  was  taken,  New  York 
contained  340,120  inhabitants  ;  at  the  same  time  the  pop- 
ulation of  Virginia  was  748,308,  being  more  than  twice 
the  number  of  New  York.  Just  sixty  years  afterward,  as 
we  learn  from  the  census  of  1850,  New  York  had  a  popu- 
lation of  3,097,394  ;  while  that  of  Virginia  was  only 
1,421,601,  being  less  than  half  the  number  of  New  York  I 


FREE    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  13 

In  1791,  the  exports  of  New  York  amounted  to  $2,505,- 
465  ;  the  exports  of  Virginia  amounted  to  $3,130,805.  In 
1852,  the  exports  of  New  York  amounted  to  $87,484,456  ; 
the  exports  of  Virginia,  during  the  same  year,  amounted 
to  only  $2,724,657.  In  1790,  the  imports  of  New  York 
and  Virginia  were  about  equal  ;  in  1853,  the  imports  of 
New  York  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $178,270,- 
999  ;  while  those  of  Virginia,  for  the  same  period,  amount- 
ed to  the  pitiful  sum  of  only  $399,004.  In  1850,  the  pro- 
ducts of  manufactures,  mining  and  the  mechanic  arts  in 
New  York  amounted  to  $237,597,249  ;  those  of  Virginia 
amounted  to  only  $29,705,387.  At  the  taking  of  the  last 
census,  the  value  of  real  and  personal  property  in  Vir- 
ginia, including  negroes,  was  $391,646,438  ;  that  of  New 
York,  exclusive  of  any  monetary  valuation  of  human  be- 
ings, was  $1,080,309,216. 

In  August,  1856,  the  real  and  personal  estate  assessed 
in  the  City  of  New- York  amounted  in  valuation  to  $511,- 
740,491,  showing  that  New-York  City  alone  is  worth  far 
more  than  the  whole  State  of  Virginia. 

What  says  one  of  Virginia's  own  sons  ?  lie  still  lives  ; 
hear  him  speak.     Says  Gov.  "Wise  : 

"  It  may  be  painful,  but  nevertheless,  profitable,  tc  re- 
cur occasionally  to  the  history  of  the  past  ;  to  listen  to  the 
admonitions  of  experience,  ond  learn  lessons  of  wisdom 
from  the  eflbrts  and  actions  of  those  who  have  preceded 
us  in  the  drama  of  human  life.  The  records  of  former  days 
show  that  at  a  period  not  very  remote,  Virginia  stood  pre- 
eminently the  first  commercial  State  in  the  Union  ;  -vNhen 
her  commerce  exceeded  in  amount  that  of  all  the  New 


COMPARISO.N     BETWEEN    inK 

England  States  combined  ;  when  the  City  of  Norfolk 
owned  n  ore  than  one  hundred  trading  ships,  and  her  di- 
rect foreign  trade  exceeded  that  of  the  City  of  New-York, 
now  the  centre  of  trade  and  the  great  emporium  of  North 
America.  At  the  period  of  the  war  of  independence,  the 
commerce  of  Virginia  was  four  times  larger  than  that  of 
New-York.-^ 

The  cash  value  of  all  the  farms,  farming  implements 
and  machinery  in  Virginia,  in  1850,  was  $223,423,315  ;  the 
value  of  the  same  in  New-York,  in  the  same  year,  was 
$576,031,568.  In  about  the  same  ratio  does  the  value  of 
the  agricultural  products  and  live  stock  of  New- York  ex- 
ceed the  value  of  the  agricultural  products  and  live  stock 
of  Virginia.  But  we  will  pursue  this  humiliating  compa- 
rison no  further.  With  feelings  mingled  with  indignation 
and  disgust,  we  turn  from  the  picture,  and  will  now  pay 
our  respects  to 

MASSACHUSETTS   AXD    NORTH    CAROLINA. 

In  1790,  Massachusetts  contained  378,717  inhabitants  ; 
in  the  same  year  North  Carolina  contained  393,751  ;  in 
1850,  the  population  of  Massachusetts  was  994,514,  all 
freemen  ;  while  that  of  North  Carolina  was  only  869,039, 
of  whom  288,548  were  slaves.  Massachusetts  has  an  area 
of  only  7,800  square  miles  ;  the  area  of  North  Carolina  is 
60,704  square  miles,  which,  though  less  than  Virginia,  is 
considerably  larger  than  the  State  of  New-York.  Massa- 
chusetts and  North  Carolina  each  have  a  harbor,  Boston 
and  Beaufort,  which  harbors,  with  the  States  that  back 


FHEK    AND  THE    SLAVE    STATES.  X5 

them,  are,  by  nature,  possessed  of  about  equal  capacities 
aiid  advautag'cs  for  commercial  and  manufacturing  enter- 
prise. Boston  has  grown  to  be  the  second  commercial 
city  in  the  Union  ;  her  ships,  freighted  with  tlic  useful  and 
unique  inventions  and  manufactures  of  her  ingenious  arti- 
sans and  mechanics,  and  bearing  upon  their  stalwart  arms 
tlie  majestic  flag  of  our  country,  glide  triumphantly  through 
the  winds  and  over  the  waves  of  every  ocean.  She  has 
done,  and  is  now  doing,  great  honor  to  herself,  her  State 
and  the  nation,  and  her  name  and  fame  are  spoken  with 
reverence  in  tfiC  remotest  regions  of  the  earth. 

How  is  it  with  Beaufort,  in  Xorth  Carolina,  whose  har- 
bor is  said  to  be  the  safest  and  most  commodious  any- 
where to  be  found  on  the  Atlantic  coast  south  of  the  har- 
bor of  New- York,  and  but  little  inferior  to  that?  lias 
anybody  ever  heard  of  her  ?  Do  the  masts  of  her  ships 
ever  cast  a  shadow  on  foreign  waters  ?  Upon  what  dis- 
tant or  benighted  shore  have  her  merchants  and  mariners 
ever  hoisted  our  national  ensign,  or  spread  the  arts  of 
civilization  and  peaceful  industry  ?  What  changes  worthy 
of  note  have  taken  place  in  the  physical  features  of  her 
superficies  since  "  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
third  day  ?"  But  we  will  make  no  further  attempt  to 
draw  a  comparison  between  the  populous,  wealthy,  and 
renowned  city  of  Boston  and  the  obscure,  despicable  little 
village  of  Beaufort,  which,  notwithstanding  "  the  placid 
bosom  of  its  deep  and  well-protected  harbor,"  has  no  i)lacc 
In  the  annals  or  records  of  the  country,  and  has  scarcely 
ever  been  heard  of  fifty  miles  from  home. 

In  1853,  the  exports  of  Massachusetts  amounted  to 


16  COMPARISON   BETWEEN   THE 

$16,895,304,  and  her  imports  to  $41,367,956  ;  during  .he 
same  time,  and  indeed  during  all  the  time,  from  the  period 
of  the  formation  of  the  government  up  to  the  year  1853, 
inclusive,  the  exports  and  imports  of  North  Carolina  were 
80  utterly  insignificant  that  we  are  ashamed  to  record 
them.  In  1850,  the  products  of  manufactures,  mining  and 
the  mechanic  arts  in  Massachusetts,  amounted  to  $151,- 
137,145  ;  those  of  North  Carolina,  to  only  $9,111,245.  In 
1856,  the  products  of  these  industrial  pursuits  in  Massa- 
chusetts had  increased  to  something  over  $288,000,000,  a 
sum  more  than  twice  the  value  of  the  entire  cotton  crop 
of  all  the  Southern  States  I  In  1850,  the  cash  value  of  all 
the  farms,  farming  implements  and  machinery  in  Massa- 
chusetts, was  $112,285,931  ;  the  value  of  the  same  in 
North  Carolina,  in  the  same  year,  was  only  $71,823,298. 
In  1850,  the  value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  estate  in 
Massachusetts,  without  recognizing  property  in  man,  or 
setting  a  monetary  price  on  the  head  of  a  single  citizen, 
white  or  black,  amounted  to  $573,342,286  ;  the  value  of 
the  same  in  North  Carolina,  including  negroes,  amounted 
to  only  $226,800,472.  In  1856,  the  real  and  personal 
estate  assessed  in  the  City  of  Boston  amounted  in  valua- 
tion to  within  a  fraction  of  $250,000,000,  showing  conclu- 
sively that  so  far  as  dollars  and  cents  arc  concerned,  that 
single  city  could  buy  the  whole  State  of  North  Carolina, 
and  by  right  of  purchase,  if  sanctioned  by  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  and  by  State  Constitutions,  hold 
her  as  a  province.  In  1850,  there  were  in  Massachusetts 
1,8^1  native  white  and  free  colored  persons  over  twenty 
years  of  age  who  could  not  read  and  write  ;  in  the  same 


FREE    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  17 

year,  the  same*  class  of  persons  in  North  CaroliLa  nifiH- 
bored  80,083  ;  while  her  288,548  slaves  were,  by  legisla- 
tive enactments,  kept  in  a  state  of  absolute  ignorance  and 
unconditional  subordination. 

Uoping,  however,  and  believing,  that  a  large  majority 
of  the  most  respectable  and  patriotic  citizens  of  North 
Carolina  have  resolved,  or  will  soon  resolve,  with  unyield- 
ing purpose,  to  cast  aside  the  great  obstacle  that  impedes 
their  progress,  and  bring  into  action  a  new  policy  which 
will  lead  them  from  poverty  and  ignorance  to  wealth  and 
intellectual  greatness,  and  which  will  shield  them  not  on- 
ly from  the  rebukes  of  their  own  consciences,  but  also  from 
the  just  reproaches  of  the  civilized  world,  we  will,  for  the 
present,  in  deference  to  their  feelings,  forbear  the  furthei 
enumeration  of  these  degrading  disparities,  and  turn  our 
attention  to 

PENNSYLVANIA   AND    SOUTH    CAROLINA. 

An  old  gentleman,  now  residing  in  Charleston,  tcld  us, 
but  a  few  months  since,  that  he  had  a  distinct  recollection 
of  the  time  when  Charleston  imported  foreign  fabrics  for 
the  Philadelphia  trade,  and  when,  on  a  certain  occasion, 
his  mother  went  into  a  store  on  Market-street  to  select  a 
silk  dress  for  herself,  the  merchant,  unable  to  please  her 
fancy,  persuaded  her  to  postpone  the  selection  for  a  few 
days,  or  until  the  arrival  of  a  new  stock  of  superb  styles 
and  fashions  which  he  had  recently  purchased  in  the  me- 
tropolis of  South  Carolina,  This  was  all  very  proper 
Charleeton  had  a  spacious  harbor,  a  central  position,  and 


18  COMPARISON    BETWEFN   THE 

a  mild  climate  ;  and  from  priority  of  settlement  riad  busi- 
ness connections,  to  say  nothing  of  other  advantages,  she 
enjoyed  greater  facilities  for  commercial  transactions  than 
Philadelphia.  She  had  a  right  io  get  custom  wherever 
she  could  find  it,  and  in  securing  so  valuable  a  customer 
as  the  Quaker  City,  she  exhibited  no  small  degree  of  laud- 
able enterprise.  But  why  did  she  not  maintain  her  supre- 
macy ?  K  the  answer  to  this  query  is  not  already  in  the 
reader's  mind,  it  will  suggest  itself  before  he  peruses  the 
whole  of  this  work.  For  the  present,  suffice  it  to  say, 
that  the  cause  of  her  shameful  insignificance  and  decline 
is  essentially  the  same  that  has  thrown  every  other  South- 
ern city  and  State  in  the  rear  of  progress,  and  rendered 
them  tributary,  in  a  commercial  and  manufacturing  point 
of  view,  almost  entirely  tributary,  to  the  more  sagacious 
and  enterprising  States  and  cities  of  the  North. 

A  most  unfortunate  day  was  that  for  the  Palmetto  State, 
and  indeed  for  the  whole  South,  when  the  course  of  trade 
was  changed,  and  she  found  herself  the  retailer  of  foreign 
and  domestic  goods,  imported  and  vended  by  wholesale 
merchants  at  the  Xorth.  Philadelphia  ladies  no  longer 
look  to  the  South  for  late  fashions,  and  fine  silks  and 
satins  ;  no  Quaker  dame  now  wears  drab  apparel  of 
Charleston  importation.  Like  all  other  niggervillcs  in  our 
di.-rcputable  part  of  the  confederacy,  the  commercial  em- 
pc.'ium  of  South  Carolina  is  sick  and  impoverished  ;  her 
silver  cord  lias  been  loosed  ;  hti  golden  bowl  has  been 
broken  ;  and  lier  unhappy  people,  without  proper  or  profit- 
able employment,  poor  in  pocket,  and  few  in  number,  go 
mourning  or  loafing  about  the  streets.     Her  annual  im^ 


FREE    AND   THE    S.'^VE    STATES.  19 

portations  arc  actually  less  now  than  they  were  a  century 
ag-o,  when  South  Carolina  was  the  second  commercial 
province  on  the  continent,  Virginia  being  the  first. 

In  nCO,  as  we  learn  from  Mr.  Benton's  "Thirty  Years' 
View,"  tlie  foreign  imports  into  Charleston  were  $2,GG2,- 
000  ;  in  1855,  they  amounted  to  only  $1,750,000  !  In 
1854,  the  imports  into  Philadelphia,  which,  in  foreign 
trade,  ranks  at  present  but  fourth  among  the  commercial 
cities  of  the  union,  were  $21,903,021.  In  1850,  the  pro- 
ducts of  manufactures,  mining,  and  the  mechanic  arts,  ir 
Pennsylvania,  amounted  to  $155,044,910  ;  the  products  of 
the  same  in  South  Carolina,  amounted  to  only  $7,063,513. 

As  shown  by  the  census  report  of  1850,  which  was  pre- 
pared under  the  superintendence  of  a  native  of  South  Car- 
olina, who  certainly  will  not  be  suspected  of  injustice  to 
his  own  section  of  the  country,  the  Southern  states,  the 
cash  value  of  all  the  farms,  farming  implements,  and  ma- 
chinery in  Pennsylvania,  was  $422,508,040  ;  the  value  of 
the  same  in  South  Carolina,  in  the  same  year,  was  only 
$86,518,038.  From  a  compendium  of  the  same  census,  we 
learn  that  the  value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property 
in  Pennsylvania,  actual  property,  no  slaves,  amounted  to 
$729,144,998  ;  the  value  of  the  same  in  South  Carolina, 
including  the  estimated  —  we  were  about  to  say  fictitious 
—  value  of  384,925  negroes,  amounted  to  only  $288,257,- 
604.  We  have  not  been  able  to  obtain  the  figures  neces- 
sary to  show  the  exact  value  of  the  real  and  personal  es- 
tate in  Philadelphia,  but  the  amount  is  estimated  to  be  not 
less  than  $300,000,000  ;  and  as,  in  1850,  there  were  408,- 
762  free  inhabitants  in  the  single  city  of  Philadelphia, 


20  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

against  283,544  of  the  same  class,  in  the  whole  state  of 
South  Carolina,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  former  is  more 
powerful  than  the  latter,  and  far  ahead  of  her  in  all  the 
elements  of  genuine  and  permanent  superiority.  In  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1850,  the  annual  income  of  public  schools 
amounted  to  $1,348,249  ;  the  same  in  South  Carolina,  in 
the  same  year,  amounted  to  only  $200,600  ;  in  the  former 
state  there  were  393  libraries  other  than  private,  in  the 
latter  only  26  ;  in  Pennsylvania  310  newspapers  and  pe- 
riodicals were  published,  circulating  84,898,672  copies  an- 
nually ;  in  South  Carolina  only  46  newspapers  and  peri- 
odicals were  published,  circulating  but  7,145,930  copies 
per  annum. 

The  incontrovertible  facts  we  have  thus  far  presented 
are,  we  think,  amply  sufficient,  both  in  number  and  mag- 
nitude, to  bring  conviction  to  the  mind  of  every  candid 
reader,  that  there  is  something  wrong,  socially,  politically 
and  morally  wrong,  in  the  policy  under  which  the  South 
has  so  long  loitered  and  languished.  Else,  how  is  it  that 
the  North,  under  the  operations  of  a  policy  directly  the 
opposite  of  ours,  has  surpassed  us  in  almost  everything 
great  and  good,  and  left  us  standing  before  the  world,  an 
object  of  merited  reprehension  and  derision  ? 

For  one,  we  are  heartily  ashamed  of  the  inexcusable 
weakness,  inertia  and  dilapidation  everywhere  so  manifest 
throughout  our  native  section  ;  but  the  blame  properly 
attaches  itself  to  an  usurping  minority  of  the  people,  and 
we  are  determined  that  it  shall  rest  where  it  belongs. 
More  on  tliis  subject,  however,  after  a  brief  but  general 
eurvey  of  the  inerjualities  and  disparities  tnat  exist  between 


FREE    ASn    TIIK    SLAVE    STATES.  21 

those  two  grand  divisions  of  the  country,  "which,  witl-out 
reference  to  the  situation  that  any  part  of  their  territory 
bears  to  the  cardinal  points,  are  every  day  becoming  more 
familiarly  known  by  the  appropriate  appellation  of 

TlIE    FREE    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES. 

It  is  a  fact  well  known  to  every  intelligent  Southerner 
that  we  are  compelled  to  go  to  the  North  for  almost  every 
article  of  utility  and  adornment,  from  matches,  shoepcgs 
and  paintings  up  to  cotton-mills,  steamships  and  statuary  ; 
that  we  have  no  foreign  trade,  no  princely  merchants,  nor 
respectable  artists  ;  that,  in  comparison  with  the  free 
states,  we  contribute  nothing  to  the  literature,  polite  arts 
and  inventions  of  the  age  ;  tliat,  for  want  of  profitable 
employment  at  home,  large  numbers  of  our  native  popula- 
tion find  themselves  necessitated  to  emigrate  to  the  West, 
whilst  the  free  states  retain  not  only  the  larger  proportion 
of  those  born  within  their  own  limits,  but  induce,  annually, 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  foreigners  to  settle  and  remain 
amongst  them  ;  that  almost  everything  produced  at  the 
North  meets  with  ready  sale,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
there  is  no  demand,  even  among  our  own  citizens,  for  the 
productions  of  Southern  industry  ;  that,  owing  to  the 
absence  of  a  proper  system  of  business  amongst  us,  the 
North  becomes,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  proprietor  and 
dispenser  of  all  our  floating  wealth,  and  that  we  are  de- 
pendent on  Northern  capitalists  for  the  means  necessary 
to  buila  our  railroads,  canals  and  other  public  improve- 
ments ;  that  if  we  want  to  visit  a  foreign  country,  even 


22  COMPARISON    BETWEEN     THE 

though  it  may  lie  directly  South  of  us,  we  find  no  convcLicnt 
way  of  getting  there  except  by  taking  passage  through  a 
Northern  port ;  and  that  nearly  all  the  profits  arising  from 
the  exchange  of  commodities,  from  insurance  and  shipping 
offices,  and  from  the  thousand  and  one  industrial  pursuits 
of  the  country,  accrue  to  the  North,  and  are  there  invested 
in  the  erection  of  those  magnificent  cities  and  stupendous 
works  of  art  which  dazzle  the  eyes  of  the  South,  and  attest 
the  superiority  of  free  institutions  I 

The  North  is  the  Mecca  of  our  merchants,  and  to  it  they 
must  and  do  make  two  pilgrimages  per  annum — one  in  the 
spring  and  one  in  the  fall.  All  our  commercial,  mechanical, 
manufactural,  and  literary  supplies  come  from  there.  We 
want  Bibles,  brooms,  buckets  and  books,  and  we  go  to  the 
North  ;  we  want  pens,  ink,  paper,  wafers  and  envelopes, 
and  we  go  to  the  North  ;  we  want  shoes,  hats,  handker- 
chiefs, umbrellas  and  pocket  knives,  and  we  go  to  the 
North  ;  we  want  furniture,  crockery,  glassware  and  pianos, 
and  we  go  to  the  North  ;  we  want  toys,  primers,  school 
books,  fashionable  apparel,  machinery,  medicines,  tomb- 
stones, and  a  thousand  other  things,  and  we  go  to  the 
North  for  them  all.  Instead  of  keeping  our  money  in  cir- 
culation at  home,  by  patronizing  our  own  mechanics,  man- 
ufacturers, and  laborers,  we  send  it  all  away  to  the  North, 
and  there  it  remains  ;  it  never  falls  into  our  hands .  again. 

In  one  way  or  another  we  are  more  or  less  subservient 
to  the  North  every  day  of  our  lives.  In  infancy  we  are 
swaddled  in  Northern  muslin  ;  in  childhood  we  are  hu- 
mored with  Northern  gewgaws  ;  in  youth  we  are  instruct- 
ed out  of  Nor*-Jiern  books  ;  at  the  age  of  maturity  we  sow 


FREE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES.  23 

our  "  wikl  oats"  on  Xoitbcrn  soil  ;  in  midille-lilo  wo  ex- 
haust our  wealtli,  energies  and  talents  in  the  disbonorablo 
vocation  of  entailing  our  dependence  on  our  ijliildren  and 
on  our  children's  children,  and,  to  the  neglect  of  our  own 
interests  and  the  interests  of  those  around  us,  in  giving 
aid  and  succor  to  every  department  of  Northern  power  ; 
in  the  decline  of  life  wo  remedy  our  ej'e-sight  with  Nor- 
thrcn  spectacles,  and  support  our  inGrmities  with  Northern 
canes  ;  in  old  age  wx'  arc  drugged  with  Northern  physic  ; 
and,  finally,  when  we  die,  our  inanimate  bodies,  shrouded 
in  Northern  cambric,  arc  stretched  upon  the  bier,  borne  to 
the  grave  in  a  Northern  carriage,  entombed  wntli  a  Nor- 
thern spade,  and  memorized  with  a  Northern  slab  I 

But  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  say  more  in  illustra- 
tion of  this  unmanly  and  unnational  dependence,  which  is 
BO  glaring  that  it  cannot  fail  to  be  apparent  to  even  the 
most  careless  and  superficial  observer.  All  the  world 
Bees,  or  ought  to  see,  that  in  a  commercial,  mechanical, 
manufactural,  financial,  and  literary  point  of  view,  we  arc 
as  helpless  as  babes  ;  that,  in  comparison  with  the  Free 
States,  our  agricultural  resources  have  been  greaily  ex- 
aggerated, misunderstood  and  mismanaged  ;  and  that,  in- 
stead of  cultivating  among  ourselves  a  wise  policy  of  mu- 
tual assistance  and  co-operation  with  respect  to  individ- 
uals, and  of  self-reliance  with  respect  to  the  South  at  largo, 
instead  of  giving  countenance  and  encouragement  to  the 
industrial  enterprises  projected  in  our  midst,  and  inst<.'ad 
of  building  up,  aggrandizing  and  beautifying  our  own 
States,  cities  and  towns,  w^e  have  been  spending  our  sub- 
stance  at   the   North,  and   are    daily    augmenting   and 


24  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

streDgthening  the  very  power  which  now  has  as  so  com- 
pletely under  its  thumb. 

It  thus  appears,  in  view  of  the  preceding  statistical 
facts  and  arguments,  that  the  South,  at  one  time  the  su- 
perior of  the  North  in  almost  all  the  ennobling  pursuits 
and  conditions  of  life,  has  fallen  far  behind  her  competitor, 
and  now  ranks  more  as  the  dependency  of  a  mother  coun- 
try than  as  the  equal  confederate  of  free  and  independent 
States.  Following  the  order  of  our  task,  the  next  duty 
that  devolves  upon  us  is  to  trace  out  the  causes  which 
have  conspired  to  bring  about  this  important  change,  and 
to  place  on  record  the  reasons,  as  we  understand  them, 

WHY  THE  NORTH  HAS  SURPASSED  THE  SOUTH. 

And  now  that  we  have  come  to  the  very  heart  and  soul 
of  our  subject,  we  feel  no  disposition  to  mince  matters, 
but  mean  to  speak  plainly,  and  to  the  point,  without  any 
equivocation,  mental  reservation,  or  secret  evasion  what- 
ever. The  son  of  a  venerated  parent,  who,  while  he  lived, 
was  a  considerate  and  merciful  slaveholder,  a  native  of 
the  South,  born  and  bred  in  North  Carolina,  of  a  family 
whose  home  has  been  in  the  valley  of  the  Yadkin  for  near- 
ly a  century  and  a  half,  a  Southerner  by  instinct  and  by 
all  the  influences  of  thought,  habits,  and  kindred,  and  with 
the  desire  and  fixed  purpose  to  reside  permanently  within 
the  limits  of  the  South,  and  with  the  expectation  of  dying 
there  also — we  feel  that  we  have  the  right  to  express  our 
opinion,  however  humble  or  unimportant  it  maybe,  on  any 
and  every  question  that  affects  the  public  good  ;  and,  so 


FREE  AXn  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  25 

help  U3  Gc»d,  "  sink  or  swira,  live  or  die,  survive  or  pei> 
ish,**  we  arc  determined  to  exercise  that  right  with  manly 
firmness,  and  without  fear,  favor  or  aflection. 

And  now  to  the  point  In  our  opinion,  an  opinion  which 
has  been  formed  from  data  obtained  by  assiduous  r^ 
searches,  and  comparisons,  from  laborious  investigation, 
logical  reasoning,  and  earnest  reflection,  the  causes  which 
have  impeded  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  the  South, 
which  have  dwindled  our  commerce,  and  other  similar 
pursuits,  into  the  most  contemptible  insignificance  ;  sunk 
a  large  majority  of  our  people  in  galling  poverty  and  ig- 
norance, rendered  a  small  minority  conceited  and  tyran- 
nical, and  driven  the  rest  away  from  their  homes  ;  entailed 
upon  us  a  humiliating  dependence  on  the  Free  States  ;  dis- 
graced us  in  the  recesses  of  our  own  souls,  and  brought 
us  under  reproach  in  the  eyes  of  all  civilized  and  enlight- 
ened nations — may  all  be  traced  to  one  common  source, 
and  there  find  solution  in  the  most  hateful  and  honible 
word,  that  was  ever  incorporated  into  the  vocabulary  of 
human  economy —  Slavery  ! 

Reared  amidst  the  institution  of  slavery,  believing  it  to 
be  "s^Tong  both  in  principle  and  in  practice,  and  having 
seen  and  felt  its  evil  influences  upon  individuals,  comma 
nities  and  states,  we  deem  it  a  duty,  no  less  than  a  privi- 
lege, to  enter  our  protest  against  it,  and  to  use  our  most 
strenuous  efforts  to  overturn  and  abolish  it  1  Then  we 
are  an  abolitionist?  Yes  !  not  merely  a  freesoiler,  but  an 
abolitionist,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  terra.  We  are  not 
only  in  favor  of  keeping  slavery  out  of  the  territories,  but, 

carrying  our  opposition   to  the   institution  a  step  further, 
2 


26  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

we  here  unhesita  Hingly  declare  ourself  in  favor  of  its  im- 
mediate and  unconditional  abolition,  in  every  state  in  this 
confederacy,  where  it  now  exists  I  Patriotism  makes  u* 
a  freesoiler  ;  state  pride  makes  us  an  emancipationist ;  i 
profound  sense  of  duty  to  the  South  makes  us  an  abolition 
its  ;  a  reasonable  degree  of  fellow  feeling  for  the  negro, 
makes  us  a  colonizationist.  With  the  free  state  men  in 
Kanzas  and  Nebraska,  we  sympathize  with  all  our  heart 
We  love  the  whole  country,  the  great  family  of  states  and 
territories,  one  and  inseparable,  and  would  have  the  word 
Liberty  engraved  as  an  appropriate  and  truthful  motto,  on 
the  escutcheon  of  every  member  of  the  confederacy.  We 
love  freedom,  we  hate  slavery,  and  rather  than  gfve  up 
the  one  or  submit  to  the  other,  we  will  forfeit  the  pound 
of  flesh  nearest  our  heart.  Is  this  sufiBciently  explicit  and 
categorical  ?  If  not,  we  hold  ourself  in  readiness  at  all 
times,  to  return  a  prompt  reply  to  any  proper  quest'on 
that  may  be  propounded. 

Our  repugnance  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  springs 
from  no  one-sided  idea,  or  sickly  sentimentality.  We  have 
not  been  hasty  in  making  up  our  mind  on  the  subject ;  we 
have  jumped  at  no  conclusions  ;  we  have  acted  with  per- 
fect calmness  and  deliberation  ;  we  have  carefully  consid- 
ered, and  examined  the  reasons  for  and  against  the  insti- 
tution, and  have  also  taken  into  account  the  propable  con- 
sequences of  our  decision.  The  more  we  investigate  the 
matter,  the  deeper  becomes  the  conviction  that  we  are  right; 
and  with  this  to  impel  and  sustain  us,  we  pursue  our  labor 
with  love,  with  hope,  and  with  constantly  renewing  vigor. 

That  we  shall  encounter  opposition  we  consider  as  cer- 


I 


FREE    AND    inE    ?LAVE    STATES.  27 

tain  ;  pcrliaps  we  may  even  Lc  subjected  to  insult  and 
violence.  From  the  conceited  and  cruel  oligarchy  of  the 
South,  we  could  look  for  nothing  less.  But  we  shall 
shrink  from  no  responsibility,  and  do  nothing  unbecoming 
a  man  ;  we  know  how  to  repel  indignity,  and  if  assaulted, 
shall  not  fail  to  make  the  blow  recoil  upon  the  aggres- 
sor's head.  The  road  we  have  to  travel  may  be  a  rough 
one,  but  no  impediment  shall  cause  us  to  falter  in  our 
course.  The  line  of  our  duty  is  clearly  defined,  and  it  is 
our  intention  to  follow  it  faithfully,  or  die  in  the  attempt. 

But,  thanks  to  heaven,  we  have  no  ominous  forebodings 
of  the  result  of  the  contest  now  pending  between  Liberty 
and  Slavery  in  this  confederacy.  Though  neither  a  prophet 
nor  the  son  of  a  prophet,  our  vision  is  sufficiently  pene- 
trative to  divine  the  future  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  see  that 
the  "  peculiar  institution"  has  but  a  short,  and,  as  hereto- 
fore, inglorious  existence  before  it.  Time,  the  rightcr  of 
every  wrong,  is  ripening  events  for  the  desired  consumma- 
tion of  our  labors  and  the  fulfillment  of  our  cherished 
hopes.  Each  revolving  year  brings  nearer  the  inevitable 
crisis.  The  sooner  it  comes  the  better  ;  may  heaven, 
through  our  humble  efforts,  hasten  its  advent. 

The  first  and  most  sacred  duty  of  every  Southerner,  who 
has  the  honor  and  the  interest  of  his  country  at  heart,  is 
to  declare  himself  an  unqualified  and  uncompromising  abo- 
litionist. No  conditional  or  half-way  declaration  will 
avail  ;  no  mere  threatening  demonstration  will  succeed. 
With  those  who  desire  to  be  instrumental  in  bringing 
about  tht  triumph  of  liberty  over  slavery,  there  should  be 
neither  evasion  vacillation,  nor  equivocation.     WesbiM'll 


28  '  COMPARISON    BETWEEN  THE 

listen  to  no  modifying  terms  or  compromises  that  may  be 
proposed  by  the  proprietors  of  the  unprofitable  and  ungod- 
ly institution.  Nothing  short  of  the  complete  abo.ition  of 
slavery  can  save  the  South  from  falling  into  the  vortex  of 
utter  ruin.  Too  long  have  we  yielded  a  submissive  obe- 
dience to  the  tyrannical  domination  of  an  inflated  oligar- 
chy ;  too  long  have  we  tolerated  their  arrogance  and  self- 
conceit  ;  too  long  have  we  submitted  to  their  unjust  and 
savage  exactions.  Let  us  now  wrest  from  them  the  scep- 
tre of  power,  establish  liberty  and  equal  rights  through- 
out the  land,  and  henceforth  and  forever  guard  our  legis- 
lative halls  from  the  pollutions  and  usurpations  of  pro- 
slavery  demagogues. 

We  have  stated,  in  a  cursory  manner,  the  reasons,  as 
we  understand  them,  why  the  North  has  surpassed  the 
South,  and  have  endeavored  to  show,  we  think  success- 
fully, that  the  political  salvation  of  the  South  depends  up- 
on the  speedy  and  unconditional  abolition  of  slavery.  We 
will  not,  however,  rest  the  case  exclusively  on  our  own 
arguments,  but  will  again  appeal  to  incontrovertible  facts 
and  statistics  to  sustain  us  in  our  conclusions.  But  be- 
fore we  do  so,  we  desire  to  fortify  ourself  against  a  charge 
that  is  too  frequently  made  by  careless  and  superficial 
readers.  We  allude  to  the  objections  so  often  urged 
against  the  use  of  tabular  statements  and  statistical  facts 
It  is  worthy  of  note,  however,  that  those  objections  never 
come  from  thorough  scholars  or  profound  thinkers.  Among 
the  majority  of  mankind,  the  science  of  statistics  is  only 
beginning  to  be  appreciated  ;  when  well  understood,  it 
will  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  imp  »rtant  branches 


FREE    AN'D    THE    SLAVE    STA1ES.  29 

of  knowledge,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  be  introduced 
and  taught  as  an  indispensable  element  of  practical  edu- 
cation in  all  our  principal  institutions  of  learning.  One 
of  the  most  vigorous  and  popular  transatlantic  writers  of 
the  day,  Wm.  C.  Taylor,  LL.D.,  of  Dublin,  says  : 

"  The  cultivation  of  statistics  must  be  the  source  of  all 
future  improvement  in  the  science  of  political  economy, 
because  it  is  to  the  table  of  the  statistician  that  the  eco- 
nomist must  look  for  his  facts  ;  and  all  speculations  not 
founded  upon  facts,  though  they  may  be  admired  and  ap- 
plauded when  first  propounded,  will,  in  the  end,  assuredly 
be  forgotten.  Statistical  science  may  almost  be  regarded 
as  the  creation  of  this  age.  The  word  statistics  w^as  in- 
vented in  the  middle  of  the  last  century  by  a  German  pro- 
fessor,* to  express  a  summary  view  of  the  phj'sical,  moral, 
and  social  conditions  of  States  ;  he  justly  remarked,  thai 
a  numerical  statement  of  the  extent,  density  of  population, 
imports,  exports,  revenues,  etc.,  of  a  country,  more  per- 
fectly explained  its  social  condition  than  general  state- 
ments, however  graphic  or  however  accurate.  When 
Buch  statements  began  to  be  collected,  and  exhibited  in  a 
popular  form,  it  was  soon  discovered  that  the  political  and 
economical  sciences  were  likely  to  gain  the  position  of 
physical  sciences  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  were  about  to  ob- 
tain records  of  observation,  which  would  test  the  accu- 
racy of  recognized  principles,  and  lead  to  the  discovery  of 
new  modes  of  action.  But  the  great  object  of  tliis  new 
science  is  to  lead  to  the  knowledge  of  human  nature  ;  that 

•  AchoLmll,  a  native  of  Elbing,  Prussia.      Born  1710,  died  1792. 


30  COMPARIiOX    BErNVE«.:N    THE 

is,  to  ascertain  the  general  course  of  operation  of  man's 
mental  and  moral  faculties,  and  to  furnish  us  with  a  cor- 
rect standard  of  judgment,  by  enabling  us  to  determine 
the  average  amount  of  the  past  as  a  guide  to  the  average 
probabilities  of  the  future.  This  science  is  yet  in  its  in- 
fancy, but  has  already  produced  the  most  beneficial  effects. 
The  accuracy  of  the  tables  of  life  have  rendered  the  cal- 
culations of  rates  of  insurance  a  matter  of  much  greater 
certainty  than  they  were  heretofore  ;  the  system  of  keep- 
ing the  public  accounts  has  been  simplified  and  improved; 
and  finally,  the  experimental  sciences  of  medicine  and  po- 
litical economy,  have  been  fixed  on  a  firmer  foundation 
than  could  be  anticipated  in  the  last  century.  Even  in 
private  life  this  science  is  lik(3ly  to  prove  of  immense  ad- 
vantage, by  directing  attention  to  the  collection  and  regis- 
tration of  facts,  and  thus  preventing  the  formation  of  hasty 
judgments  and  erroneous  conclusions." 

The  compiler,  or  rather  the  superintendent  of  the  seventh 
United  States  census.  Prof.  De  Bow,  a  gentleman  of  more 
than  ordinary  industry  and  practical  learning,  who,  in  his 
excellent  Review,  has,  from  time  to  time,  displayed  much 
commendable  zeal  in  his  efforts  to  develop  the  industrial 
resources  of  the  Southern  and  South-western  states,  and 
who  is,  perhaps,  the  greatest  statistician  in  the  country, 
says : — 

"  Statistics  are  far  from  being  the  barren  array  of  figures 
ingeniously  and  laboriously  combined  in^o  columns  and 
tables,  which  many  persons  are  apt  to  suppose  them. 
They  constitute  rather  the  ledger  of  a  nation,  in  which, 
like  the  merchant  in  his  books,  the  citizen  can  read,  at  one 


FllEE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES.  31 

riew,  all  of  the  results  of  a  year  or  of  a  period  of  years,  ae 
compared  with  other  periods,  and  deduce  the  profit  or  the 
loss  which  has  been  made,  in  morals,  education,  wealth  or 
power." 

Impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  propriety  of  introducing, 
in  this  as  well  as  in  the  succeeding  chapters  of  our  work, 
a  number  of  tabular  statements  exhibiting  the  comparative 
growth  and  prosperity  of  the  free  and  slave  states,  we  have 
deemed  it  eminently  proper  to  adduce  the  testimony  of 
ifkil^  distinguished  authors  in  support  of  the  claims  which 
official  facts  and  accurate  statistics  lay  to  our  considera- 
tion. And  here  we  may  remark  that  the  statistics  which 
we  propose  to  offer,  like  those  already  given,  have  been 
obtained  from  official  sources,  and  may,  therefore,  be  relied 
on  as  correct.  The  object  we  have  in  view  in  making  a 
free  use  of  facts  and  figures,  if  not  already  apparent,  will 
soon  be  understood.  It  is  not  so  much  in  its  moral  and 
religious  aspects  that  we  propose  to  discuss  the  question 
of  slavery,  as  in  its  social  and  political  character  and 
influences.  To  say  nothing  of  the  sin  and  the  shame  of 
slavery,  we  believe  it  is  a  most  expensive  and  unprofitable 
institution  ;  and  if  our  brethren  of  the  South  will  but 
throw  aside  their  unfounded  prejudices  and  preconceived 
opinions,  and  give  us  a  fair  and  patient  hearing,  we  feel 
confident  that  we  can  bring  them  to  the  same  conclusion. 
Indeed,  we  believe  we  shall  be  enabled — not  alone  by  our 
own  contributions,  but  with  the  aid  of  incontestable  facts 
and  arguments  which  we  shall  introduce  from  other  sources 
— to  convince  all  true-hearted,  candid  and  intelligent 
Southerners,  wLo  may  chance  to  read  our  book,  (and  wo 


8^  COMPARISON     BETWEEN    THE 

hope  their  name  may  be  legion)  that  slavery,  and  nothing 
but  slavery,  has  retarded  the  progress  and  prosperity  of 
our  portion  of  the  Union  ;  depopulated  and  impoverished 
our  cities  by  forcing  the  more  industrious  and  enterprising 
natives  of  the  soil  to  emigrate  to  the  free  states  ;  brought 
our  domain  under  a  sparse  and  inert  population  by  pre- 
venting foreign  immigration  ;  made  us  tributary  to  the 
North,  and  reduced  us  to  the  humiliating  condition  of  mere 
provincial  subjects  in  fact,  though  not  in  name.  We 
believe,  moreover,  that  every  patriotic  Southerner  thus 
convinced  will  feel  it  a  duty  he  owes  to  himself,  to  his 
country,  and  to  his  God,  to  become  a  thorough,  inflexible, 
practical  abolitionist.     So  mote  it  be  I 

Now  to  our  figures.  Few  persons  have  an  adequate 
idea  of  the  important  part  the  cardinal  numbers  are  now 
playing  in  the  cause  of  Liberty.  They  are  working  won- 
ders in  the  South.  Intelligent,  business  men,  from  the 
Chesapeake  to  the  Rio  Grande,  are  beginning  to  see  that 
slavery,  even  in  a  mercenary  point  of  view,  is  impolitic, 
because  it  is  unprofitable.  Those  unique,  mysterious  little 
Arabic  sentinels  on  the  watch-towers  of  political  economy, 
1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  T,  8,  9,  0,  have  joined  forces,  allied  them- 
selves to  the  powers  of  freedom,  and  are  hemming  in  and 
combatting  the  institution  with  the  most  signal  success. 
If  let  alone,  we  have  no  doubt  the  digits  themselves  would 
soon  terminate  the  existence  of  slavery  ;  but  we  do  not 
mean  to  let  them  alone  ;  they  must  not  have  all  the  honor 
of  annihilating  the  monstrous  iniquity.  We  want  to  become 
an  auxiliary  in  the  good  work,  and  facilitate  it.  The  lib* 
eratioi:  of  five  m'Uions  of  "  poor  white  trash"  from  the 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  33 

second  degree  of  slavery,  and  of  three  millions  of  miserable 
kidnapped  negroes  from  tlie  first  degree,  cannot  be  acconi- 
plished  too  soon.  That  it  was  not  accomplished  many 
years  ago  is  our  misfortune.  It  now  behooves  us  to  take 
a  bold  and  determined  stand  in  defence  of  tlie  inalienable 
rights  of  ourselves  and  of  our  follow  men,  and  to  avenge 
the  multiplicity  of  wrongs,  social  and  political,  which  we 
have  sufl'ered  at  the  hands  of  a  villainous  oligarchy.  It  is 
madness  to  delay.  We  cannot  be  too  hasty  in  carrying 
out  our  designs.  Precipitance  in  this  matter  is  an  utter 
impossibility.  If  to-day  we  could  emancipate  all  the  slaves 
in  the  Union,  we  would  do  it,  and  the  country  and  every- 
body in  it  would  be  vastly  better  off  to-morrow.  Now  is 
the  time  for  action  ;  let  us  work. 

By  taking  a  sort  of  inventory  of  the  agricultural  products 
of  the  free  and  slave  States  in  1850,  we  now  propose  to 
correct  a  most  extraordinary  and  mischievous  error  into 
which  the  people  of  the  South  have  unconsciously  fallen. 
Agriculture,  it  is  well  known,  is  the  sole  boast  of  the 
South  ;  and,  strange  to  say,  many  pro-slavery  Southerners, 
who,  in  our  latitude,  pass  for  intelligent  men,  are  so  puffed 
up  with  the  idea  of  our  importance  in  this  respect,  that 
they  speak  of  the  North  as  a  sterile  region,  unfit  for  culti- 
vation, and  quite  dependent  on  the  South  for  the  necessa- 
ries of  life  !  Such  rampant  ignorance  ought  to  be  knocked 
in  the  head  1  "We  can  prove  that  the  North  produces 
greater  quantities  of  bread-stuffs  than  the  South  I  Figures 
shall  show  the  facts.  Properly,  the  South  has  nothing  left 
to  boast  of ;  the  North  has  surpassed  her  in  everything, 

and  is  going  farther  and  farther  ahead  of  her  every  day. 

2* 


34  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

We  ask  the  reader's  careful  attention  to  the  following 
tables,  which  we  have  prepared  at  no  little  cost  of  time 
and  trouble,  and  which,  when  duly  considered  in  connection 
with  the  foregoing  and  subsequent  portions  of  our  work, 
will,  we  believe,  carry  conviction  to  the  mind  that  the 
downward  tendency  of  the  South  can  be  arrested  only  by 
the  abolition  of  slavery. 


7RF.K    AND   THE    SL.WE    ST.MES. 


35 


TABLE    NO.    1. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OP    THE    FREE    STATES 1850. 


Suites. 


Wheat, 
bushels. 


California 17,228 

Coimecticut 41,762 

Illinois 9,414,575 

Indiana ,       6,214,458 

Iowa 1,530,581 

Maine 296,259 

Massachusetts 31,211 

Michigan 4,925,889 

New  Hampshire 185,658 

N.-w  Jersey 1,601,190 

New  York.' 13,121,498 

Ohio 14,487,351 

Pennsylvania 15,367,091 

Rho<le  Island I  49 

Vermont 535,955 

Wiaconsin 4.2:'6,131 


'2.157.486 


Oat8, 
bushels. 


1,258,738 
10,087,241 
5,655,014 
1,524,345 
2,181,037 
1,165.146 
2,866,056 
973,381 
3,378,063 
26,552,814 
13,472,742 
21,538.156  I 
215,232  I 
2,307,734  I 
3,414,672  ! 


Indian   Corn, 
bushels. 


12,236 

1,935,043 

67,616,984 

62,964,363 

8,656,799 

1,751  ),056 

2,345,190 

6,641,420 

1,573,670 

8,759,704 

17,858,400 

59,078,695 

19,835,214 

639,201 

2,032,396 

1,988,979 


96,590,371  I  242,018,650 


TABI.K    NO.    II. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

"Wheat, 
bushels. 

Oats, 

bushels. 

Indian    Com, 
bushels. 

Alabama 

294,044 

199,639 

482.511 

1,027 

1,088,534 

2,142,822 

417 

4,494.680 

137,990 

2,981.652 

2,130,102 

1,066,277 

1,619,386 

41,729 

11,212,616 

2,965,696 

656,183 

604,518 

66,586 

3,820.044 

8,201,311 

89,637 

2,242.151 

1.503,288 

6,278,079 

4,052,078 

2,322,155 

7,703,086 

199,017 

10,179,144 

28  754  048 

Arkansas , 

Delaware     

8.893,939 

3,145,542 

1.596,809 

30^080,099 

Florida 

Georcria 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

68,672,591 
10,266,373 
10,749,858 
22,446,552 
36,214,537 
27,941,051 
16,271.454 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

62,276,223 

Texa.s 

6  028.876 

Virginia.       

35,254,319 

27,901,476 

49,882,979 

348,992,282 

36 


FREE    AND   THE    SL^'E    STATES. 


TABLE    NO.    III. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    FREE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

California    

Coniiecticui 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts.  . 

Michigan 

New  Hampshire. 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania..  . 
Rhode  Island..  . 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 


Potatoes,  (L 

Ryp, 

Brirley, 

&.  S.)  bush. 

bushels. 

bushels. 

10,292 

9,712 

2.689,805 

600,893 

19.099 

2,672.294 

83,364 

110,795 

2,285,048 

78,792 

45,483 

282,363 

19,916 

25,093 

8,430,040 

102,916 

151,731 

3,585,3S4 

481,021 

112,385 

2,361,074 

105,871 

75,249 

4,307,919 

183,117 

70,256 

3,715,251 

1,255,578 

6,492 

15,403,997 

4,148,182 

3,585.059 

5,245,760 

425,918 

354,358 

6,032,904 

4,805,160 

165,584 

651,029 

26,409 

18,875 

4,951,014 

176.233 

42,150 

1,402,956 

81,253 

209,692 

59,033,170 

12,574,623 

5.002.013 

TABLE    NO.    IV. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES- 


■1850. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana ,. 

Maryland 

Mississippi . . . . 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 


rotatoes,  (L 

Rye, 

bushels. 

Barley, 

&,  8.)  bush. 

bushels. 

6,721,205 

17,261 

3,958 

981,981 

8,047 

177 

305,985 

8,066 

66 

765,054 

1,152 

7,213,807 

53,750 

11,501 

2,490,666 

415,073 

95.343 

1.524,085 

475 

973,932 

226,014 

745 

5,003,277 

9,606 

228 

1,274,511 

44,268 

9.631 

5,716,027 

229,663 

2,735 

4,473.960 

43,790 

4,583 

3,845,560 

89,137 

2.737 

1,426,803 

3,108 

4,776 

3,130,567 

458,930 

25,437 

44,847,420 

1  608,240 

161,907 

FREE    AN'D    THE    SLAVE    STATES. 


37 


TABLE    NO.    V. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OP    THE    FREE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

Buckwlieat, 
bu8lu'la. 

Beans  &  Peas, 
bushels. 

Clov.i  GraiM 
seeds,  bush. 

California 

■ 

229,297 

184,509 

149,740 

62,516 

104,523 

105,895 

472,917 

65,205 

878,934 

3,183,955 

638,060 

2,193,692 

1.245 

209,819 

79,878 

2,292 

19,090 

82,814 

35,773 

4,475 

205,541 
43,709 
74,254 
70,856 
14,174 

741,546 

60,168 

55,231 

6,846 

104,649 
20,657 

ConiiectWut 

Illinois 

Indiana 

30,469 

17,807 
30,271 

Iowa 

2  438 

Maine 

18,311 

Massachusetts 

6.087 

Michigan 

26  274 

New  Hampshire. 

8,900 
91,331 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

184.715 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

140,501 
178,943 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

5,or,6 

15  696 

Wisconsin 

6,486 

8,550,245 

1.542,295 

762,265 

TABLE   NO.   VI. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Loui.siaiia 

Maryland 

Mississippi. . .. 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennc««ee 

Texas 

Virginia 


Buckwheat, 

Beans  &  Peas, 

Clov.  &  Grass 

bushels. 

bushels. 

seetlrv,  bush. 

348 

892,701 

685 

175 

285,738 

626 

8,615 

4,120 

3,928 

65 

1.35,359 

2 

250 

1,142,011 

560 

16,097 

202,574 

24,711 

3 

161,732 

99 

103,671 

12,816 

17,778 

1,121 

1,072,757 

617 

23,611 

46,017 

4,965 

16,704 

1,584,252 

1,851 

283 

1,020,900 

406 

19,427 

369,321 

14,214 

69 

179,.351 

10 

214,898 

521,579 

53,155 

405,357 

7,637,227 

123,517 

38 


COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 


TABLE    NO.   VII. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    FREE    STATES 18lO. 


States. 

Flaxseed, 
bushels. 

Val.  of  Gar- 
den products. 

S75,275 

196,874 

127,494 

72,864 

8,848 

122,387 

600,020 

14,738 

56,810 

475,242 

912,047 

214,004 

688,714 

98,298 

18,853 

32,142 

Val.  of  Or- 
chard prod'ts. 

703 

10,787 

36,888 

1,959 

580 

72 

519 

189 

16,525 

57,963 

188,880 

41,728 

939 
1,191 

S17,700 

Connecticut 

Illinois          

175,118 
446.049 
324,940 
8,434 
342,865 

Indiana. 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Michijran 

463,995 
132,650 

New  Hampshire 

248,560 

607,268 

1,761,950 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

695,921 

723,389 

63,994 

315,255 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

4  823 

358.923 

S3, 7 14,605 

S6, 332,914 

TABLK    NO.   VIII. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi. .  . . 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia. 


Flaxeeed, 
bushels. 

69 
321 
904 

622 
75,801 

2,446 
26 

13,696 

38,196 
55 

18,904 
26 

52,318 


Val.  of  Gar- 
den products. 

S84,821 

17,150 

12,714 

8,721 

76,500 

303.120 

148,329 

200,869 

46,250 

99,454 

39,402 

47,286 

97,183 

12,354 

183,047 


203.484   Sl,377,260   Sl,356,827 


Val.  of  Or- 
chard prod'ts. 

S15,108 

40,141 

46,574 

1,280 

92,776 

106.230 
22.259 

164,051 
50,405 

514.711 
34.348 
35,108 
52.894 
12,505 

177,137 


FREE    AN'D    THE 


RECAPITULATIOX — 

Wheat 72,157,486  bush 

Oats 96,590,371      " 

Indian  Corn 242,618.650  " 

Potatoes  (I.  &  S.).  59,033,170  " 

Rye 12,574,623  " 

Barley 5,002,013  " 

Buckwheat 8,550,245  " 

Beans  &  Peas 1,542,295  " 

CI0V.&,  Grass  seeds  762,265  •' 

Flax  Seeds 358,923  '• 

Garden  Products.. 
Orchard  Products. 


!LA\E 

STATES. 

89 

-FREE 

STATES. 

J.      (a) 

1.50 

..   S108,236,220 

(1 

40 

.  ..     38,636,148 

(1 

60.... 

...    145,571,190 

" 

38.... 

. . .     22,432,604 

" 

1.00.... 

...     12,574,023 

It 

90.... 

...       4,501,811 

n 

50 

...       4,275,122 

u 

1.75 

2,699.015 

(1 

3.00.... 

2,286,795 

<( 

1.25.... 

448,647 
.  ..       3,714,605 
. . .       6,332,914 

Total, 499,190,041  buBhcls,  valued  as  above,  at  S351,709,703 


RECAPITUL.\TION SLAVE 

STATES. 

"Wheat 

27,904,476  bush. 
49,882,799      " 

(a) 

1.50 

40.... 

,.    $  41,850  714 

Oats 

...     19,953.191 

Indian  Corn 

348,992,282      " 

60 ... . 

...   209,395,369 

Potatoes  (I.  &  S.). 

44,847,420      '• 

38.... 

...      17,042,019 

Rve      

1,608,240      " 
161,907      " 

1  00     .. 

...       1,608,240 
145,716 

Barley 

90 

Buckwheat 

405,357      " 

60.... 

202,678 

Beans  &  Peas 

7,637,227      " 

1.75.... 

.  ..      13,365,147 

CI0V.&  Grass  seeds 

1        123,517      '• 

3.00.... 

370,551 

Flax  Seeds 

203,484      " 

1.25.... 

254,355 

Garden  Products. , 

...       1,377,260 

Orchard  Products. 

1  valued  as  above, 

1,355,827 

Total 

481,766,889  bushels, 

at  S306,927,067 

TOTAL    DIFFERENCE BUSHEIrMEASURE    PRODUCTS. 

BuHhela.  Value. 

Free  States 499,190,041 S351,709,703 

Slave  States 481,766,889 306,927,067 


Balance  in  busbeh       17,423,152     Difference  in  value.  ..$44,782,630 


40  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

So  much  foi  the  boasted  agricultural  superiority  of  the 
South  I  Mark  well  the  balance  in  bushels,  and  the  differ- 
ence in  value  I  Is  either  in  favor  of  the  South  ?  No  ! 
Are  both  in  favor  of  the  North  ?  Yes  I  Here  we  have 
unquestionable  proof  that  of  all  the  bushel-measure  pro- 
ducts of  the  nation,  the  free  states  produce  far  more  than 
one-half ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  particular  mention,  that  the 
excess  of  Northern  products  is  of  the  most  valuable  kind.  The 
account  shows  a  balance  against  the  South,  in  favor  of  the 
North,  of  seventeen  million  four  hundred  and  twenty-three  thovr 
sand  onz  hundred  arid  fifty-two  bushels,  and  a  difference  in 
value  of  forty-four  million  seven  hundred  and  eighty-two  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  thirty-six  dollars.  Please  bear  these 
facts  in  mind,  for,  in  order  to  show  positively  how  the  free 
and  slave  States  do  stand  upon  the  great  and  important 
subject  of  rural  economy,  we  intend  to  take  an  account  of 
all  the  other  products  of  the  soil,  of  the  live-stock  upon 
farms,  of  the  animals  slaughtered,  and,  in  fact,  of  every 
item  of  husbandry  of  the  two  sections  ;  and  if,  in  bringing 
our  tabular  exercises  to  a  close,  we  find  slavery  gaining 
upon  freedom — a  thing  it  has  never  yet  been  known  to  do 
— ^we  shall,  as  a  matter  of  course,  see  that  the  above 
amount  is  transferred  to  the  credit  of  the  side  to  which  it 
of  right  belongs. 

In  making  up  these  tables  we  have  two  objects  in  view ; 
the  first  is  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  non-slaveholders  of  the 
South,  to  the  system  of  deception,  that  has  so  long  been 
practiced  upon  them,  and  the  second  is  to  show  slave- 
holders themselves — we  have  reference  only  to  those  who 
are  not  too  perverse,  i    ignorant,  to  perceive  naked  ti'utha 


FREE  AND  THE  ^LAVE  STATE3  41 

— that  free  labor  is  far  more  respectable,  pn  Citable,  and 
productive,  than  slave  labor.  In  the  South,  unfortunately, 
no  kind  of  labor  is  cither  free  :r  respectable.  Every  white 
man  who  is  under  the  necessity  of  earning  his  bread,  by 
the  sweat  of  his  brow,  or  by  manual  labor,  in  any  capaci- 
ty, no  matter  how  unassuming  in  deportment,  or  exem- 
plary in  morals,  is  treated  as  if  he  was  a  loathsome  beast, 
and  shunned  with  the  utmost  disdain.  His  soul  may  be 
the  very  seat  of  honor  and  integrity,  yet  without  slaves — 
himself  a  slave — he  is  accounted  as  nobody,  and  would 
be  deemed  intolerably  presumptuous,  if  he  dared  to  open 
his  mouth,  even  so  wide  as  to  give  faint  utterance  to  a 
three-lettered  monosyllable,  like  yea  or  nay,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  an  august  knight  of  the  whip  and  the  lash. 

There  are  few  Southerners  who  will  not  be  astonished 
at  the  disclosures  of  these  statistical  comparisons,  be- 
tween the  free  and  the  slave  States.  That  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  more  intelligent  and  patriotic  non-slaveholders 
will  be  mingled  with  indignation,  is  no  more  than  we  an- 
ticipate. We  confess  our  own  surprise,  and  deep  chagrin, 
at  the  result  of  our  investigations.  Until  we  examined 
into  the  matter,  we  thought  and  hoped  the  South  was 
really  ahead  of  the  North  in  oiic  particular,  that  of  agri- 
culture ;  but  our  thoughts  have  been  changed,  and  our 
hopes  frustrated,  for  instead  of  finding  ourselves  the  pos- 
sessors of  a  single  advantage,  we  behold  our  dear  native 
South  stripped  of  every  laurel,  and  sinking  deeper  and 
deeper  in  the  depths  of  poverty  and  shame  ;  while,  at  the 
same  time,  we  see  the  North,  our  su:cessful  rival,  extract- 
ing and  absorbing  the  few  elt  Ticnts  of  wealth  vot  remain- 


42  COMPARISON    BETWEEN    THE 

ing  amongst  us,  and  rising  higher  and  higher  in  the  scale 
of  fame,  fortune,  and  invulnerable  power.  Thus  our  dis- 
appointment gives  way  to  a  feeling  of  intense  mortifica- 
tion, and  our  soul  involuntarily,  but  justly,  we  believe, 
cries  out  for  retribution  against  the  treacherous,  slave- 
driving  legislators,  who  have  so  basely  and  unpatriotically 
neglected  the  interests  of  their  poor  white  constituents  and 
bargained  away  the  rights  of  posterity.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  the  white  non-slaveholders  of  the  South, 
are  in  the  majority,  as  five  to  one,  they  have  never  yet 
had  any  part  or  lot  in  framing  the  laws  under  which  they 
live.  There  is  no  legislation  except  for  the  benefit  of  slave- 
ry, and  slaveholders.  As  a  general  rule,  poor  white  per- 
sons are  regarded  with  less  esteem  and  attention  than 
negroes,  and  though  the  condition  of  the  latter  is  wretcli- 
ed  beyond  description,  vast  numbers  of  the  former  are  in- 
finitely worse  off.  A  cunningly  devised  mockery  of  free- 
dom is  guarantied  to  them,  and  that  is  all.  To  all  intents 
and  purposes  they  are  disfranchised,  and  outlawed,  and 
the  only  privilege  extended  to  them,  is  a  shallow  and  cir- 
cumscribed participation  in  the  political  movements  that 
usher  slaveholders  into  office. 

We  have  not  breathed  away  seven  and  twenty  years  in 
the  South,  without  becoming  acquainted  with  the  dema- 
gogical manoeuverings  of  the  oligarchy.  Their  intrigues 
and  tricks  of  legerdemain  are  as  familiar  to  us  as  house- 
hold words  ;  in  vain  might  the  world  be  ransacked  for  a 
more  precious  junto  of  flatterers  and  cajolers.  It  is  amus- 
ing to  ignorance,  amazing  to  credulity,  and  insulting  to 
intelligence,  to  hear  them  in  their  blattering  efforts  to  mys- 


YRLE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES.  43 

tify  and  pervert  tlie  sacred  principles  of  liberty,  and  turn 
the  curse  of  slavery  into  a  blessing-.  To  the  illiterate 
poor  whites  —  made  poor  and  ignorant  by  the  system  of 
slavery — they  hold  out  the  idea  that  slavery  is  the  very 
bulwark  of  our  liberties,  and  the  foundation  of  American 
independence  I  For  hours  at  a  time,  day  after  day,  will  t, 
they  expatiate  upon  the  inexpressible  beauties  and  excel- 
lencies of  this  great,  free  and  indeptrulent  nation  ;  and  final- 
ly, with  the  most  extravagant  gesticulations  and  rhetori- 
cal flourishes,  conclude  their  nonsensical  ravings,  by  at- 
tributing all  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  the  country,  from 
Maine  to  Texas,  and  from  Georgia  to  California,  to  the 
"  invaluable  institutions  of  the  South  !"  With  what  pa- 
tience we  could  command,  we  have  frequently  listened  to 
the  incoherent  and  truth-murdering  declamations  of  these 
champions  of  slavery,  and,  in  the  absence  of  a  more  poli- 
tic method  of  giving  vent  to  our  disgust  and  indignation, 
have  involuntarily  bit  our  lips  into  blisters. 

The  lords  of  the  lash  are  not  only  absolute  masters  of 
the  blacks,  who  are  bought  and  sold,  and  driven  about 
like  80  many  cattle,  but  they  are  also  the  oracles  and  ar- 
biters of  all  non-slaveholding  whites,  whose  freedom  is 
merely  nominal,  and  whose  unparalleled  illiteracy  and  de- 
gradation is  purposely  and  fiendishly  perpetuated.  How 
little  the  "  poor  white  trash,"  the  great  majority  of  the 
Southern  people,  know  of  the  real  condition  of  the  country 
is,  indeed,  sadly  astonishing.  The  truth  is,  they  know 
nothing  of  public  measures,  and  little  of  private  afiairs, 
except  what  their  imperious  masters,  the  slavenlrivcrs, 
condescend   to  tell,  and  that   is  but  precious  little,  and 


44  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

even  that  little,  always  garbled  and  o  le-sided,  is  never 
told  except  in  public  harangues  ;  for  the  haughty  cava- 
liers of  shackles  and  handcuffs  will  not  degrade  them- 
selves by  holding  private  converse  with  those  who  have 
neither  dimes  nor  hereditary  rights  in  human  flesh. 

Whenever  it  pleases,  and  to  the  extent  it  pleases,  a 
slaveholder  to  become  communicative,  poor  whites  may 
hear  with  fear  and  trembling,  but  not  speak.  They  must 
be  as  mum  as  dumb  brutes,  and  stand  in  awe  of  their  au- 
gust superiors,  or  be  crushed  with  stern  rebukes,  cruel 
oppressions,  or  downright  violence.  If  they  dare  to  think 
for  themselves,  their  thoughts  must  be  forever  concealed. 
The  expression  of  any  sentiment  at  all  conflicting  with 
the  gospel  of  slavery,  dooms  them  at  once  in  the  commu- 
nity in  which  they  live,  and  then,  whether  willing  or  un- 
willing, they  are  obliged  to  become  heroes,  martyrs,  or 
exiles.  They  may  thirst  for  knowledge,  but  there  is  no 
Moses  among  them  to  smite  it  out  of  the  rocks  of  Horeb. 
The  black  veil,  through  whose  almost  impenetrable  meshes 
light  seldom  gleams,  has  long  been  pendent  over  their 
eyes,  and  there,  with  fiendish  jealousy,  the  slave-driving 
ruffians  sedulously  guard  it.  Non-slaveholders  are  not 
only  kept  in  ignorance  of  what  is  transpiring  at  the  North, 
but  they  are  continually  misinformed  of  what  is  going  on 
even  in  the  South.  Never  were  the  poorer  classes  of 
a  people,  and  those  classes  so  largely  in  the  majority,  and 
all  inhabiting  the  same  country,  so  basely  duped,  so 
adroitly  swindled,  or  so  damnably  outraged. 

It  is  expected  that  the  stupid  and  sequacious  masses, 
the  white  victims  of  slavery,  will  believe,  and,  as  a  gen- 


FREE    AND    TUB    SLAVE    STATES.  45 

eral  thing,  they  do  believe,  whatever  the  slaveholders 
tell  them  ;  and  thus  it  is  that  they  are  cajoled  into  the  na- 
tion that  the}  are  the  freest,  happiest  and  most  intelligent 
people  in  the  world,  and  are  taught  to  look  with  prejudice 
and  disapprobation  upon  every  ne*w  principle  or  progres- 
sive movement.  Thus  it  is  that  the  South,  woefully  inert 
and  inventionless,  has  lagged  behind  the  North,  and  is 
now  weltering  in  the  cesspool  of  ignorance  and  degra- 
dation. 

We  have  already  intimated  that  the  opinion  is  preva- 
lent throughout  the  South  that  the  free  States  are  quite 
sterile  and  unproductive,  and  that  they  are  mainly  depen- 
dent on  us  for  breadstuffs  and  other  provisions.  So  far 
as  the  cereals,  fruits,  garden  vegetables  and  esculent 
roots  are  concerned,  we  have,  in  the  preceding  tables, 
shown  the  utter  falsity  of  this  opinion  ;  and  we  now  pro- 
pose to  show  that  it  is  equally  erroneous  in  other  parti- 
culars, and  very  far  from  the  truth  in  the  general  reckon- 
ing. We  can  prove,  and  we  intend  to  prove,  from  facts 
in  our  possession,  that  the  hay  crop  of  the  free  States  is 
worth  considerably  more  in  dollars  and  cents  than  all  the 
cotton,  tobacco,  rice,  hay  and  hemp  produced  in  the  fifteen 
slave  States.  This  statement  may  strike  some  of  our 
readers  with  amazement,  and  others  may,  for  the  moment, 
regard  it  as  quite  incredible  ;  but  it  is  true,  nevertheless, 
and  we  shall  soon  proceed  to  confirm  it.  The  single  free 
State  of  New- York  produces  more  than  three  times  the  quan- 
tity of  hay  that  is  produced  in  all  the  slave  States.  Ohio 
produces  a  larger  number  of  tons  than  all  the  Southern  and 
South westcri  Stat4^8,  and  so  does  Pennsylvania.    Vermont, 


46  COMPARISON    "JET WEEN   THE 

little  and  unpretending  as  she  is,  does  the  same  thing, 
with  the  exception  of  Virginia.  Look  at  the  facts  as  pre- 
sented in  the  tables,  and  let  your  own  eyes,  physical  and 
intellectual,  confirm  you  in  the  truth. 

And  yet,  fors  )oth,  the  slave-driving  oligarchy  would 
whip  us  into  the  belief  that  agriculture  is  not  one  of  the 
leading  and  lucrative  pursuits  of  the  free  States,  that  the 
soil  there  is  an  uninterrupted  barren  waste,  and  that  our 
Northern  brethren,  having  the  advantage  in  nothing  ex- 
cept wealth,  population,  inland  and  foreign  commerce, 
manufactures,  mechanism,  inventions,  literature,  the  arts 
and  sciences,  and  their  concomitant  branches  of  profitable 
industry, — miserable  objects  of  charity— are  dependent  on 
us  for  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Next  to  Virginia,  Maryland  is  the  greatest  Southern 
hay-producing  State  ;  and  yet,  it  is  the  opinion  of  several 
of  the  most  extensive  hay  and  grain  dealers  in  Baltimore, 
with  whom  we  have  conversed  on  the  subject,  that  the  do- 
mestic crop  is  scarcely  equal  to  one-third  the  demand, 
and  that  the  balance  required  for  home  consumption,  about 
two-thirds,  is  chiefly  brought  from  New-York,  Pennsylva- 
nia and  Massachusetts.  At  this  rate,  Maryland  receives 
and  consumes  not  less  than  three  hundred  and  fifteen 
thousand  tons  of  Northern  hay  every  year  ;  and  this,  as 
we  are  informed  by  the  dealers  above-mentioned,  at  an 
average  cost  to  the  last  purchaser,  by  the  time  it  is  sto  ,v- 
ed  in  the  mow,  of  at  least  twenty-five  dollars  per  ton  ;  it 
would  thus  appear  that  this  most  popular  and  valuable 
provender,  one  of  the  staple  commodities  of  the  North, 
commands  a  market  in  a  single  n'ave  State,  to  the  amount 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  47 

of  seven  million  ci<^ht  hundred  and  scvonty-fivc  thousand 
dollars  per  annnm. 

In  this  same  State  of  Maryland,  less  than  one  iiillion  of 
dollar's  worth  of  cotton  liuds  a  maiKct,  the  whole  number 
of  bales  sold  here  in  1850  amounting  to  only  twenty-three 
thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty-five,  valued  at  seven 
hundred  and  forty-six  thousand  four  hundred  dollars. 
Briefly,  then,  and  in  round  numbers,  we  may  state  the  case 
thus  Maryland  buys  annually  seven  millions  of  dollars 
wortn  of  hay  from  the  North,  and  one  million  of  dollars 
worth  of  cotton  from  the  South.  Let  slaveholders  and 
their  fawning  defenders  read,  ponder  and  compare. 

The  exact  quantities  of  Northern  hay,  rye,  and  buck- 
wheat flour,  Irish  potatoes,  fi-uits,  clover  and  grass  seeds, 
and  other  products  of  the  soil,  received  and  consumed  in  all 
the  slaveholding  States,  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining; 
but  for  all  practical  purposes,  we  can  arrive  sufficiently 
near  to  the  amount  by  inference  from  the  above  data,  and 
from  what  we  see  with  our  eyes  and  hear  with  our  ears 
wherever  we  go.  Food  from  the  North  for  man  or  for 
beast,  or  for  both,  is  for  sale  in  every  market  in  the  South. 
Even  in  the  most  insignificant  little  villages  in  the  inte- 
rior of  the  slave  States,  where  books,  newspapers  and 
other  mediums  of  intelligence  are  unknown,  where  the 
poor  whites  and  the  negroes  are  alike  bowed  down  in 
heathenish  ignorance  and  barbarism,  and  where  the  news 
is  received  but  once  a  week,  and  then  only  in  a  Northern- 
built  stage-coach,  drawn  by  horses  in  Northern  harness, 
in  charge  of  a  driver  dressed  uip-a-^ie  in  Northern  habili- 
ments   and  witi  a  Northern  whip  in  his  hnnd, — the  agri* 


48  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

cultural  products  of  the  North,  either  crude,  prepared, 
pickled  or  preserved,  are  ever  to  be  found. 

Mortifying  as  the  acknowledgment  of  the  fact  is  to  us, 
it  is  our  unbiased  opinion — an  opinion  which  will,  we  be- 
lieve, be  endorsed  by  every  intelligent  person  who  goes 
into  a  careful  examination  and  comparison  of  all  the  facts 
in  the  case — that  the  profits  arising  to  the  North  from  the 
sale  of  provender  and  provisions  to  the  South,  are  far 
greater  than  those  arising  to  the  South  from  the  sale  of 
cotton,  tobacco  and  breadstuffs  to  the  North.  It  follows, 
then,  that  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  North  being 
not  only  equal  but  actually  superior  to  those  of  the  South, 
the  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  which  the  commerce 
and  manufactures  of  the  former  annually  yield,  is  just  so 
much  clear  and  independent  gain  over  the  latter.  It  fol- 
lows, also,  from  a  corresponding  train  or  system  of  deduc- 
tion, and  with  all  the  foregoing  facts  in  view,  that  the  dif- 
ference between  freedom  and  slavery  is  simply  the  dif- 
ference between  sense  and  nonsense,  wisdom  and  folly, 
good  and  evil,  right  and  wrong. 

Any  observant  American,  from  whatever  point  of  the 
compass  he  may  hail,  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  pass 
through  the  Southern  markets,  both  great  and  small,  as 
we  have  done,  and  inquire  where  this  article,  that  and 
the  other  came  from,  will  be  utterly  astonished  at  the  va- 
riety and  quantity  of  Northern  agricultural  productions 
kept  for  sale.  And  this  state  of  things  is  growing  worse 
and  worse  every  year.  Exclusively  agricultural  as  the 
Sf  uth  is  in  her  industrial  pursuits,  she  is  barely  able  to 
support  her  sparse  and  degenerate  population.    Her  men 


FREE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES.  49 

and  her  domestic  animals,  both  dwarfed  into  shabby  ob- 
jects of  commiseration  under  the  blighting  effects  of  sla^ 
very,  are  constantly  feeding  on  the  multifarious  products 
of  Northern  soil.  And  if  the  whole  truth  must  bo  told,  we 
may  here  add,  that  these  products,  like  all  other  articles 
of  merchandize  purchased  at  the  North,  are  generally 
bought  on  a  credit,  and,  in  a  great  number  of  instances, 
by  far  too  many,  never  paid  for — not,  as  a  general  rule, 
because  the  purchasers  are  dishonest  or  unwilling  to  pay, 
but  because  they  are  impoverished  and  depressed  by  the 
retrogressive  and  deadening  operations  of  slavery,  that 
most  unprofitable  and  pernicious  institution  under  which 
they  live. 

To  show  how  well  we  are  sustained  in  our  remarks  up- 
on hay  and  other  special  products  of  the  soil,  as  well  as 
to  give  circulation  to  other  facts  of  equal  significance, 
we  quote  a  single  passage  from  an  address  by  Paul  C. 
Cameron,  before  the  Agricultural  Society  of  Orange  County, 
North  Carolina.  This  production  is,  in  the  main,  so  pow- 
erfully conceived,  so  correct  and  plausible  in  its  statc^ 
ments  and  conclusions,  and  so  w^ell  calculated,  though, 
perhaps,  not  intended,  to  arouse  the  old  North  State  to  a 
sense  of  her  natural  greatness  and  acquired  shame,  that 
we  could  wish  to  see  it  published  in  pamphlet  form,  and 
circulated  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  that  un- 
fortunate and  degraded  heritage  of  slavery.  Mr.  Came- 
ron says  : 

"I  know  not  when  I  have  been  more  humiliated,  as  a 
North  Carolina  farmer,  than  when,  a  few  weeks  ago,  at  a 
railroad  depot  at  the  very  doors  of  our  State  capital,  1  saw 


60  COMPARISON    BETWEEN    THE 

wagons  drawn  by  Kentucky  mules,  loading  witu  Northern 
hay,  for  the  supply  not  only  of  the  town,  but  to  be  taken 
to  the  country.  Such  a  sight  at  the  capital  of  a  State 
whose  population  is  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  agri- 
culture, is  a  most  humiliating  exhibition.  Let  us  cease  to 
use  every  thing,  as  far  as  it  is  practicable,  that  is  not  the 
product  of  our  own  soil  and  workshops — not  an  axe,  or  i* 
broom,  or  bucket,  from  Connecticut.  By  every  consider- 
ation of  self-preservation,  we  are  called  to  make  better 
efforts  to  expel  the  Northern  grocer  from  the  State  with 
his  butter,  and  the  Ohio  and  Kentucky  horse,  mule  and 
hog  driver,  from  our  county  at  least.  It  is  a  reproach  on 
us  as  farmers,  and  no  little  deduction  from  our  wealth, 
that  we  suffer  the  population  of  our  towns  and  villages 
to  supply  themselves  with  butter  from  another  Orange 
County  in  New-York." 

We  have  promised  to  prove  that  the  hay  crop  of  the  free 
states  is  worth  considerably  more  than  all  the  cotton, 
tobacco,  rice,  hay  and  hemp  produced  in  the  fifteen  slave 
States.  Tlie  compilers  of  the  last  census,  as  we  learn  from 
Prof  De  Bow,  the  able  and  courteous  superintendent,  in 
making  up  the  hay-tMes,  allowed  two  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  pounds  to  the  ton.  The  price  per  ton  at 
which  we  should  estimate  its  value  has  puzzled  us  to  some 
extent.  Dealers  in  the  article  in  Baltimore  think  it  will 
average  twenty-five  dollars,  in  their  market.  Four  or  five 
months  ago  they  sold  it  at  thirty  dollars  per  ton.  At  the 
very  time  we  write,  though  there  is  less  activity  in  the 
article  than  usual,  we  learn,  from  an  examination  of  sundry 
prices-current  and  co-imercial  journals,  that  hay  is  selling 


FREE    AND    TIIK    SLAVE    STATES.  51 

in  Savannali  at  $33  per  ton  ;  in  Mobile  and  New  Orleans 
at  $2(j  ;  in  Charleston  at  $25  ;  in  Louisville  at  $24  ;  and 
in  Cincinnati  at  $23.  The  average  of  these  prices  is 
tire7iii/-six  dollars  sixteen  and  two-third  cents ;  and  we  suppose 
it  would  be  lair  to  employ  the  figures  which  would  indicate 
this  amount,  the  net  value  of  a  single  ton,  in  calculating 
the  total  market  value  of  the  entire  crop.  Were  we  to  do 
this — and,  with  the  foregoing  facts  in  view,  we  submit  to 
intelligent  men  whether  we  would  not  be  justifiable  in 
doing  it, — the  hay  crop  of  the  free  states,  12,090,982  tons, 
in  1850,  would  amount  in  valuation  to  the  enormous  sum 
of  $331,081,695— more  than  four  times  the  value  of  all  the 
cotton  produced  in  the  United  States  during  the  same 
period  ! 

But  we  shall  not  make  the  calculation  at  what  we  have 
found  to  be  the  average  value  per  ton  throughout  the 
country.  What  rate,  then,  shall  be  agreed  upon  as  a  basis 
of  comparison  between  the  value  of  the  hay  crop  of  the 
North  and  that  of  the  South,  and  as  a  means  of  testing  the 
truth  of  our  declaration — that  the  former  exceeds  the  aggre- 
gate value  of  all  the  cotton,  tobacco,  rice,  hay  and  hemp 
produced  in  the  fifteen  slave  States  ?  Suppose  we  take 
$13,08  J — just  half  the  average  value — as  the  multiplier  in 
this  arithmetical  exercise.  This  we  can  well  afford  to  do  ; 
indeed,  we  might  reduce  the  amount  per  ton  to  much  less 
than  lialf  the  average  value,  and  still  have  a  large  margin 
left  for  triumphant  demonstration.  It  is  not  our  purpose, 
however,  to  make  an  overwhelming  display  of  the  incom- 
parable greatness  of  the  fre(i  States. 

In  estimating  the  value  of  the  various  agricultural  pro- 


52  COMPARISON    BETWfEN   THE 

ducts  of  the  two  great  sections  of  the  country,  we  have 
been  guided  by  prices  emanating  from  the  Bureau  of  Agri- 
culture in  Washington  ;  and  in  a  catalogue  of  those  prices 
now  before  us,  we  perceive  that  the  average  value  of  hay 
throughout  the  nation  is  supposed  to  be  not  more  than 
half  a  cent  per  pound — $11.20  per  ton — which,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  is  considerably  less  than  half  the  present 
market  value  ; — and  this,  too,  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that 
prices  generally  rule  higher  than  they  do  just  now.  It 
will  be  admitted  on  all  sides,  however,  that  the  prices  fixed 
upon  by  the  Bureau  of  Agriculture,  taken  as  a  whole,  are 
as  fair  for  one  section  of  the  country  as  for  the  other,  and 
that  we  cannot  blamelessly  deviate  from  them  in  one  par- 
ticular without  deviating  from  them  in  another.  Eleven 
dollars  and  twenty  cents  ($11.20)  per  ton  shall  therefore 
be  the  price  ;  and,  notwithstanding  these  greatly  reduced 
figures,  we  now  renew,  with  an  addendum,  our  declaration 
and  promise,  that —  We  can  prove,  and  we  shall  now  proceed  to 
•prove,  that  the  annual  hay  crop  of  the  free  States  is  worth  consid- 
erably more  in  dollars  and  cents  than  all  the  cotton,  tobacco,  rice, 
hay,  hemp  and  cane  sugar  annually  produced  in  the  f  '\een  slave 
States. 


FRKE    AND    TIIF,    SI,AVK    STATF,3.  58 

HAY    CROP    OF   THE   FREE    STATES 1S50. 

12,690  98<i  tons  a  11,20 S142,108,908 

SUNDRY    rRODUCTS    OF   THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 

Cotton 2,445,779  bales  a  32,00 S78,2G4,928 

Tobacco, 185,023,900  lbs.      "        10 18,502,390 

Kice  (rough) 215,313  497  lbs.      "  4 8.012,539 

Hay 1,137,784  tons    "    11,20 12,743,180 

Hemp 34,073  tons    "112,00 3,883,376 

Cane  Sugar 237,133,000  lbs.     "  7 10,599,310 


$138,605,723 


RECAPITULATION. 

Hay  crop  of  tlie  free  States $142,138,998 

Sundry  products  of  the  slave  States 138,605,723 


Balance  in  favor  of  the  free  States  ....  $3,533,275 

There  is  the  account  ;  look  at  it,  and  let  it  stand  in  at- 
testation of  the  exalted  virtues  and  surpassing  powers  of 
freedom.  Scan  it  well,  Messieurs  lords  of  the  lash,  and  learn 
from  it  new  lessons  of  the  utter  inefficiency,  and  despica- 
ble imbecility  of  slavery.  Examine  it  minutely,  liberty- 
loving  patriots  of  the  North,  and  behold  in  it  additional 
evidences  of  the  beauty,  grandeur,  and  super-excellenco 
of  free  institutions.  Treasure  it  up  in  your  minds,  out- 
raged friends  and  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  and  let 
the  recollection  of  it  arouse  you  to  an  inflexible  determina- 
tion to  extirpate  the  monstrous  enemy  that  stalks  abroad 
in  your  land,  and  to  recover  the  inalienable  rights  and 
liberties,  which  have  been  filched  froLi  you  by  an  unprin- 
cipled oligarchy. 

In  deference  to  truth,  decency  and  good  sense,  it  is  to 


54  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

be  hoped  tlial,  negro-driving  politicians  will  never  more 
have  the  effrontery  to  open  their  mouths  in  extolling  the 
agricultural  achievements  of  slave  labor.  Especially  is  it 
desirable,  that,  as  a  simple  act  of  justice  to  a  basely  de- 
ceived populace,  they  may  cease  their  stale  and  senseless 
harangues  on  the  importance  of  cotton.  The  value  of  cotr 
ton  to  the  South,  to  the  North,  to  the  nation,  and  to  the 
vrorld,  has  been  so  grossly  exaggerated,  and  so  extensive 
have  been  the  evils  which  have  resulted  in  consequence 
of  the  extraordinary  misrepresentations  concerning  it,  that 
we  should  feel  constrained  to  reproach  ourself  for  remiss- 
ness of  duty,  if  we  failed  to  make  an  attempt  to  explode 
the  popular  error.  The  figures  above  show  what  it  is,  and 
what  it  is  not.     Recur  to  them,  and  learn  the  facts. 

So  hyperbolically  has  the  importance  of  cotton  been 
magnified  by  certain  pro-slavery  politicians  of  the  South, 
that  the  person  who  would  give  credence  to  all  their  fus- 
tian and  bombast,  would  be  under  the  necessity  of  believ- 
ing that  the  very  existence  of  almost  everything,  in  the 
heaven  above,  in  the  earth  beneath,  and  in  the  water  un- 
der the  earth,  depended  on  it.  The  truth  is,  however,  that 
the  cotton  crop  is  of  but  little  value  to  the  South.  New 
England  and  Old  England,  by  their  superior  enterprise 
and  sagacity,  turn  it  chiefly  to  their  own  advantage.  It 
is  carried  in  their  ships,  spun  in  their  factories,  woven  in 
their  looms,  insured  in  their  ofSces,  returned  again  in  their 
own  vessels,  and,  w'th  doubie  freight  and  cost  of  manu- 
facturing added,  purchased  by  the  South  at  a  high  premi- 
um. Of  all  the  parties  engaged  or  interested  in  its  trans- 
portation and  manufacture,  the  South  is  the  only  one  that 


FREE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATE-^.  55 

does  not  make  a  profit.     Xor  docs  she,  as  a  general  tiling, 
malvC  a  profit  by  producing  it. 

We  arc  credibly  informed  that  many  of  the  farmers  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  Baltimore,  where  we  now  write, 
have  tnrncd  their  attention  cxclusivelj"  to  hay,  and  that 
from  one  acre  they  frequently  gather  two  tons,  for  which 
they  receive  fifty  dollars.  Let  us  now  inquire  how  many 
dollars  may  be  expected  from  an  acre  planted  in  cotton. 
Mr.  Cameron,  from  whose  able  address  before  the  Agricul- 
tural Society  of  Orange  County,  North  Carolina,  we  have 
already  gleaned  some  interesting  particulars,  informs  us, 
that  the  cotton  planters  in  his  part  of  the  country,  "  have 
contented  themselves  with  a  crop  yielding  only  ten  or 
ticelve  dollars  per  acre,''^  and  that  "  the  summing  up  of  a  large 
surface  gives  but  a  living  result."  An  intelligent  resident 
of  the  Palmetto  State,  writing  in  De  Bows  Review, 
not  long  since,  advances  the  opinion  that  the  cotton 
planters  of  South  Carolina  are  not  realizing  more  than  one 
per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  capital  they  have  invested. 
While  in  Virginia,  very  recently,  an  elderly  slaveholder, 
whose  religious  walk  and  conversation  had  recommended 
and  promoted  him  to  an  eldership  in  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  who  supports  himself  and  family  by  raising 
niggers  and  tobacco,  told  us  that,  for  the  last  eight  or  ten 
years,  aside  from  the  increase  of  his  human  chattels,  he 
felt  quite  confident  he  had  not  cleared  as  much  even  as 
one  per  cent,  per  annum  on  the  amount  of  his  investment. 
The  real  and  personal  property  of  this  aged  Christian  con- 
sists chiefly  in  a  large  tract  of  land  and  about  thirty  ne- 
groes, most  of  whom,  accenting  to  his  own  v  onfcssion,  are 


66  COMPARISOX    BETWEEN   THE 

more  expensive  than  profitable.  The  proceeds  arising  from 
the  sale  of  the  tobacco  they  produce,  are  all  absorbed  in 
the  purchase  of  meat  and  bread  for  home  consumption,  and 
when  the  crop  is  stunted  by  drought,  frost,  or  otherwise 
cut  short,  one  of  the  negroes  must  be  sold  to  raise  funds 
for  the  support  of  the  others.  Such  are  the  agricultural 
achievements  of  slave  labor  ;  such  are  the  results  of  "  the 
sum  of  all  villainies."  The  diabolical  institution  subsists 
on  its  own  flesh.  At  one  time  children  are  sold  to  pro- 
cure food  for  the  parents,  at  another,  parents  are  sold  to 
procure  food  for  the  children.  Within  its  pestilential  at- 
mosphere, nothing  succeeds  ;  progress  and  prosperity  are 
unknown  ;  inanition  and  slothfulness  ensue  ;  everything 
becomes  dull,  dismal  and  unprofitable  ;  wretchedness  and 
desolation  run  riot  throughout  the  land;  an  aspect  of  most 
melancholy  inactivity  and  dilapidation  broods  over  every 
city  and  town ;  ignorance  and  prejudice  sit  enthroned 
over  the  minds  of  the  people  ;  usurping  despots  wield  the 
sceptre  of  power  ;  everywhere,  and  in  everything,  between 
Delaware  Bay  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  are  the  multitudin- 
ous evils  of  slavery  apparent. 

The  soil  itself  soon  sickens  and  dies  beneath  the  unna^ 
tural  tread  of  the  slave.  Hear  what  the  Hon.  C.  C.  Clay,  of 
Alabama,  has  to  say  upon  the  subject.  His  testimony  is 
eminently  suggestive,  well-timed,  and  truthful ;  and  we 
heartily  commend  it  to  the  careful  consideration  of  every 
spirited  Southron  who  loves  his  country,  and  desires  to 
see  it  rescued  from  the  fatal  grasp  of  "  the  mother  of  har- 
lots :"  Says  he  : 

"  I  can  show  you,  with  sorrow,  in  the  older  portions  of 


FREE    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  5t 

Alabama,  and  in  my  native  county  of  Madison,  the  sad 
memorials  of  the  artless  and  exhausting  culture  of  cotton. 
Our  small  planters,  after  taking  the  cream  off  their  lands, 
unable  to  restore  them  by  rest,  manures,  or  otherwise,  are 
going  further  West  and  South,  in  search  of  other  virgin 
lands,  which  they  may  and  will  despoil  and  impoverish  in 
like  manner.  Our  wealthier  planters,  with  greater  means 
and  no  more  skill,  are  buying  out  their  poorer  neighbors, 
extending  their  plantations,  and  adding  to  their  slave 
force.  The  wealthy  few,  who  arc  able  to  live  on  smaller 
profits,  and  to  give  their  blasted  fields  s«me  rest,  are  thus 
pushing  off  the  many  who  are  merely  independent.  Of  the 
$20,000,000  annually  realized  from  the  sales  of  the  cotton 
crop  of  Alabama,  nearly  all  not  expended  in  supporting 
the  producers,  is  re-invested  in  land  and  negroes.  Thus 
the  white  population  has  decreased  and  the  slave  increas- 
ed almost  pari  passu  in  several  counties  of  our  State.  In 
1825,  Madison  county  cast  about  3,000  votes  ;  now, 
she  cannot  cast  exceeding  2,300.  In  traversing  that 
county,  one  will  discover  numerous  farm-houses,  once  the 
abode  of  industrious  and  intelligent  freemen,  now  occu- 
pied by  slaves,  or  tenantless,  deserted  and  dilapidated  ;  he 
will  observe  fields,  once  fertile,  now  unfenced,  abandoned, 
and  covered  with  those  evil  harbingers,  fox-tail  and  broom- 
sedge  ;  he  will  see  the  moss  growing  on  the  mouldering 
walls  of  once  thrifty  villages,  and  will  find  '  one  only  mas- 
ter grasps  the  whole  domain,'  that  once  furnished  happy 
homes  for  a  dozen  white  families.  Indeed,  a  country 
in  its  infancy,  where  fifty  years  ago  scarce  a  forest  tree 
had  }  een  fellol  by  the  axe  of  the  pioneer,  is  already  exhi- 


68  COMPARISOX    BETWEEN   THE 

biting  the  painful  signs  of  senility  and  decay,  appare:  t  in 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas." 

Some  one  has  said  that  "  an  honest  confession  is  good 
for  the  soul,"  and  if  the  adage  be  true,  as  we  have  no 
doubt  it  is,  we  think  Mr.  C.  C.  Clay  is  entitled  to  a  quiet 
conscience  on  one  score  at  least.  In  the  extract  quoted 
above,  he  gives  us  a  graphic  description  of  the  ruinous 
operations  and  influences  of  slavery  in  the  Southwest ;  and 
we,  as  a  native  of  Carolina,  and  a  traveler  through  Vir- 
ginia, are  ready  to  bear  testimony  to  the  fitness  of  his  re- 
marks when  he  referred  to  those  States  as  examples  of 
senility  and  decay.  With  equal  propriety,  however,  he 
might  have  stopped  nearer  home  for  a  subject  of  compa- 
rison. Either  of  the  States  bordering  upon  Alabama,  or, 
indeed,  any  other  slave  States,  would  have  answered  his 
purpose  quite  as  well  as  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas. 
Wherever  slavery  exists  there  he  may  find  parallels  to  the 
destruction  that  is  sweeping  with  such  deadly  influence 
over  his  own  unfortunate  State. 

As  for  examples  of  vigorous,  industrious  and  thrifty 
communities,  they  can  be  found  anywhere  beyond  the 
Upas-shadow  of  slavery — nowhere  else.  New-York  and 
Massachusetts,  which,  by  nature,  are  confessedly  far  in- 
ferior to  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  have,  by  the  more 
liberal  and  equitable  policy  which  they  have  pursued,  in 
substituting  liberty  for  slavery,  attained  a  degree  of  emi- 
nence and  prosperity  altogether  unknown  in  the  slave 
States. 

Amidst  all  the  hyperbole  and  cajolery  of  slave-driving  pol- 
iticians^ who,  as  W3  have  already  seen,  are  *  the  books,  tho 


rRT.F.    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  59 

arts,  the  academies,  that  show,  contain,  and  govern  all  tho 
South,'  we  arc  rejoiced  to  see  that  'Sh.  Clay,  Mr.  Cameron, 
and  a  few  others,  have  had  the  boldness  and  honesty  to 
step  forward  and  proclaim  the  truth.  All  such  frank 
admissions  are  to  be  hailed  as  good  omens  for  the  South. 
Nothing  good  can  come  from  any  attempt  to  conceal  the 
unconcealable  evidences  of  poverty  and  desolation  every- 
where trailing  in  the  wake  of  slavery.  Let  the  truth  be 
told  on  all  occasions,  of  the  North  as  well  as  of  the  South, 
and  the  people  will  soon  begin  to  discover  the  egregious- 
ness  of  their  errors,  to  draw  just  comparisons,  to  inquire 
into  cause  and  effect,  and  to  adopt  the  more  utile  measures, 
manners  and  customs  of  their  wiser  cotemporaries. 

In  wilfully  traducing  and  decrying  everything  North  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  and  in  excessively  magnifying  the 
importance  of  everything  South  of  it,  the  oligarchy  have, 
in  the  eyes  of  all  liberal  and  intelligent  men,  only  made  an 
exhibition  of  their  uncommon  folly  and  dishonesty.  For  a 
long  time,  it  is  true,  they  have  succeeded  in  deceiving  the 
people,  in  keeping  them  humbled  in  the  murky  sloughs  of 
poverty  and  ignorance,  and  in  instilling  into  their  untu- 
tored minds  passions  and  prejudices  expressly  calculated  to 
strengthen  and  protect  the  accursed  institution  of  slavery  ; 
but,  thanks  to  heaven,  their  inglorious  reign  is  fa&t  draw- 
ing to  a  close  ;  with  irresistible  brilliancy,  and  in  spite  of 
the  interdict  of  tyrants,  light  from  the  pure  fountain  of 
knowledge  is  now  streaming  over  the  dark  places  of  our 
land,  and,  ere  long — mark  our  words — there  will  ascend 
from  Delaware,  and  from  Texas,  and  from  all  the  intermo- 
diat«  States,  a  huzza  for  Freedom  and  for  Equal  Rights, 


60  COMIi^ISON    BETWEEN   THE 

that  will  utterly  confound  the  friends  of  despoti^m,  set  at 
defiance  the  authority  of  usurpers,  and  carry  consternation 
to  the  heart  of  every  slavery-propagandist. 

To  undeceive  the  people  of  the  South,  to  bring  their  t© 
a  knowledge  of  the  inferior  and  disreputable  position  which 
they  occupy  as  a  component  part  of  the  Union,  and  to  give 
prominence  and  popularity  to  those  plans  which,  if  adopted, 
will  elevate  us  to  an  equality,  socially,  morally,  intellectu- 
ally, industrially,  politically,  and  financially,  with  the  most 
flourishing  and  refined  nation  in  the  world,  and,  if  possible, 
to  place  us  in  the  van  of  even  that,  is  the  object  of  this 
"^ork.  Slaveholders,  either  from  ignorance  or  from  a  wilful 
disposition  to  propagate  error,  contend  that  the  South  has 
nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  that  slavery  has  proved  a  bless- 
ing to  her,  and  that  her  superiority  over  the  North  in  an 
agricultural  point  of  view  makes  amends  for  all  her  short- 
comings in  other  respects.  On  the  other  hand,  we  contend 
that  many  years  of  continual  blushing  and  severe  penance 
would  not  suffice  to  cancel  or  annul  the  shame  and  disgrace 
that  justly  attaches  to  the  South  in  consequence  of  slavery 
— the  direst  evil  that  e'er  befell  the  land — that  the  South 
bears  nothing  like  even  a  respectable  approximation  to  the 
North  in  navigation,  commerce,  or  manufactures,  and  that, 
contrary  to  the  opinion  entertained  by  ninety-nine  hun- 
dredths of  her  people,  she  is  far  behind  the  free  States  in 
the  only  thing  of  which  she  has  ever  dared  to  boast — agri 
culture.  We  submit  the  question  to  the  arbitration  of 
figures,  which,  it  is  said,  do  not  lie.  "With  regard  to  the 
bushel-measure  products  of  the  soil,  of  which  we  have 
already  taken  an  inventory,  we  have  seen  that  there  is  a 


FREE    AND   THE    SIJ^VE    STATES.  61 

balance  against  the  South  in  favor  of  the  Ncrth  oi  seventeen 
mUHon  four  hiindral  and  ticcnly-thrce  thousand  one  hundred  and 
Jifty-two  bushels,  and  a  diflference  in  the  value  of  the  same, 
also  in  favor  of  the  North,  of  forty-four  million  seven  hundred 
and  elghtif-firo  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-six  dollars.  It 
is  certainly  a  most  novel  kind  of  agricultural  superiority 
that  the  South  claims  on  that  score  I 

Our  attention  shall  now  be  directed  to  the  twelve  prin- 
cipal pound-measure  products  of  the  free  and  of  the  slave 
States — hay,  cotton,  butter  and  cheese,  tobacco,  cane,  su- 
gar, wool,  rice,  hemp,  maple  sugar,  beeswax  and  honey, 
flax,  and  hops  —  and  in  taking  an  account  of  them,  we 
shall,  in  order  to  show  the  exact  quantity  produced  in 
each  State,  and  for  the  convenience  of  future  reference, 
pursue  the  same  plan  as  that  adopted  in  the  preceding 
tables.  "Whether  slavery  will  appear  to  better  advantage 
on  the  scales  than  it  did  in  the  half-bushel,  remains  to  be 
seen.  It  is  possible  that  the  rickety  monster  may  make  a 
better  show  on  a  new  track  ;  if  it  makes  a  more  ridiculous 
display,  we  shall  not  be  surprised.  A  careful  examina- 
tion of  its  precedents,  has  taught  us  the  folly  of  expecting 
anything  good  to  issue  from  it  in  any  manner  whatever. 
It  has  no  disposition  to  emulate  the  magnanimity  of  its 
betters,  and  as  for  a  laudable  ambition  to  excel,  that  is  a 
characteristic  altogether  foreign  to  its  nature.  Languor 
and  inertia  are  the  insalutary  viands  upon  which  it  de- 
lights to  satiate  its  morbid  appetite  ;  and  "  from  bad  to 
worse"  is  the  ill-omened  motto  under  which,  in  all  its  fee- 
ble eflbrts  and  achievements,  it  ekes  out  a  most  miserable 
and  deleterious  existence 


62 


COMPARISON   BETWEEN  THE 


TABLE   NO.    IX. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE   FREE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

Hay,  tons. 

Hemp,  tons. 

Hope,  lbs. 

California 

2,038 

516,131 

601,952 

403,230 

89,055 

756,889 

651,807 

404,934 

598,854 

435,950 

3,728,797 

1,443,142 

1,842,970 

74,418 

866,153 

275,662 

12,690,982 

4 

150 

44 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

554 

3,551 

92,796 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Michioran 

8,242 

40,120 

121,595 

10,663 

257,174 

2,133 

2,586,299 

63,731 

22  088 

Kew  Hampshire 

Ne  w  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

277 

Vermont 

288,023 
15,930 

Wisconsin 

198 

3,463,176 

TABLK   NO.   X. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

Hay,  tons. 

Hemp,  tons. 

Hops,  lbs. 

Alabama 

32,685 

276 

Arkansas ;, 

3,976 

15 

157 

Delaware 

80,159 

348 

Florida 

2.510 

14 

Georgia 

23,449 

261 

Kentucky 

113,747 

17,787 

4,309 

Louisiana 

25,762 

125 

Maryland 

157,956 

63 

1,870 

Mississippi 

12,504 

7 

473 

Missouri 

116,925 

16,028 
39 

4,130 
9,246 

North  Carolina 

145,653 

South  Carolina 

20,925 

26 

Tennessee 

74,091 

595 

1,032 

Texas 

8,354 
369,098 

1,137,784 

139 

7 

Virginia. .  ^ 

11,506 

84,678 

33,780 

FREE    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES. 


es 


TABLE    NO.    XI. 

AGRTCriTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    FREE    STATES — 1850. 


States. 

Flax, 
11.8. 

Mapio  Sugar, 

Tobacco, 

"■•■ 

California      

17,928 

160,063 

684,469 

62,660 

17,081 

1,162 

7,152 

7,652 

182,965 

940,577 

446,932 

630,307 

85 

20,852 

68,393 

50,796 

218,904 

2,921,192 

78,407 

93,542 

795,525 

2.439,794 

1,298,863 

2.197 

10,3571484 

4,588,209 

2,326,525 

28 

6.349,357 

610,976 

32,161,799 

1  000 

^Connecticut 

1,267,624 
841,394 

Illinois    

1,044  620 
6,041 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

138,246 
1,245 

Now  Hampshire     .... 

50 

New  Jersey 

310 

New  York 

83,18y 

10,454,449 

912,651 

Ohio 

Pennsvlvauia 

Rhode'  Island 

Vermont. 

Wisconsin 

1,268 

3,048,278 

14,752,087 

TABLK    NO.    XII. 

AGRICULTURAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

Flax, 
Ibfl. 

Maple  Sugar, 
lbs. 

Tobacco, 

lb8. 

Alabama 

Arkan.sas , 

3,921 

12,291 

17,174 

50 

6,387 

2,100,110 

35,686 

665 

627,160 

693,796 

333 

368,131 

1,048 

1,000,450 

643 
9,330 

60 

437,405 

255 

47,740 

178,910 

27,932 

200 

158,557 

1,227,665 

164,990 
218,936 

Florida 

Gcororia     

998,614 
423,924 

Kentucky 

55,501,196 
26,878 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

21,407,497 
49,960 

Missouri.. 

17,113,784 

North  Carolina 

11,984,786 

Soutli  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas. 

74.285 

20,148,932 

66,897 

Virf'inia.              

66.803,227 

i-e";.198 

2,088.0^' 

185,023,906 

64 


COMPARISON   BETWEEN  THE 


TABLE    NO.   XIII. 

ANIMAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    FREE    STATES 185  H. 


States. 

Wool, 
lbs. 

Butter  and 
Cheese,  lbs. 

Beeswax  and 
Honey,  lbs. 

California 

5,520 

497,454 
2,150.113 
2,610,287 

373,898 
1,364,034 

585,136 
2,043,283 
1,108,476 

375,396 

10,071,301 

10,196,371 

4,481,570 

129,692 
3,400,717 

253,963 

39,647,211 

855 
11,861,396 
13,804,768 
13,506,099 

2,381.028 
11,678;205 
15,159,512 

8,077,390 
10,173,619 

9,852,966 

129.507,507 

55,268,921 

42,383,452 

1,312,178 
20,858,814 

4,034,033 

349,860,783 

Connecticut 

93,304 
869,444 
935,329 
321,711 

Illinois    

Indiana   .... 

Iowa 

Maine 

189,618 

59,508 

359,232 

Massachusetts ., 

Michio^an 

New  Hampshire. 

New  Jersey 

New  York' , 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

117,140 
156,694 
1,755,830 
804,275 
839,509 
6,347 
249,422 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

131,005 

6,888,368 

TABLE    NO.   XVI. 

ANIMAL    PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

1         Wool, 
lbs. 

Butter  and 
Cheese,  lbs. 

Beeswax  and 
Honey,  lbs. 

Alabama 

657,118 

182,595 

57,768 

23,247 

990,019 

2,297,433 
109,897 
477,438 
559,619 

1,627.164 
970,738 
487,233 

1,364,378 
131,917 

2,860,765 

12,797,329 

4,040,223 
1,884,327 
1,058,495 
389,513 
4.687,535 

10,161,477 
685,020 
3,810,135 
4,367,425 
8,037,931 
4,242,211 
2,986,820 
8,317,266 
2,440,199 

11,525,651 

Gi,034,224 

897,021 

Arkansas , 

Delaware 

192,338 
41,248 

Florida »... 

18,971 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

732,514 

1,158,019 

96.701 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

74,802 
397,460 

Missouri 

1,328,972 

North  Carolina 

512,289 

South  Carolina 

216,281 
1,030.572 

Tennessee 

Texas. ^^ 

380825 

Virginia 

880,767 

7,964,760 

FREE    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES. 


65 


TABLE    NO.   XV. 

AGRICULTURAl    PROI  UCTS    OF    THE    SLAVE    SFATES 1850. 


bta'.es. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

LouL'iiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi.... 

Missouri 

North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 


Cotton,    bales       Cane  Sugar,       Rough  Rice, 
of4u0  1b8,  lihdB.10001bfl.  lbs. 


504,429 
65,344 

45,131 

499,091 

758 

178,737 

484,292 

50,545 
300,901 
194,532 

58,072 
3,947 

2,445.779 


87 


2,750 

846 

10 

226.001 


8 


77 

3 

7,351 


237,133 


2,312,252 
63,179 

1,075,090 

38,950.691 

5,688 

4,425,349 

2,719,850 

700 

5,405,868 

159,980,613 

258,854 

88,203 

17,154 

215,313,497 


RECAPITULATION FREE    STATES. 


Hay 28,427,799,680  lbs.  (S)  1-2  c.  $142,138,998 

Hemp 443,520    "  "  5"  22,176 

Hops 3,463,176     ♦'  "  15"  519,476 

Flax 3,ai8,278     "  "  10 '♦  304,827 

Maple  Sugar 32,161,799     "  "  8"  2,572,943 

Tobacco 14,752,087     '♦  "  10"  1,475,208 

"Wool 39,647,211     "  "  35"  13,876,523 

Butter  and  Cheese...     349,860,783     "  "  15"  62,479,117 

Beeswax  and  Honey..         6,888,368     "  "  15"  1,033,255 

ToUl, 28,878,001,902  ibg,  valued  aa  abc^e,  S214,422,523 


66  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 


RECAPITULATION SLAVE  STATES. 

Hay 2,548,636,160  lbs.  ©  1-2  c.     ,..S12,7i3,180 

Hemp 77,667,520  "  "  5    " 3,883,376 

Hops 33,780  "  "  15    "  5,067 

Flax 4,766,198  "  "  10    " 476,619 

Maple  Sugar 2,088,687  "  "  8    " 167,094 

Tobacco 185,023,906  "  "  10    " 18,502,390 

Wool 12,797,329  "  '«  35     " 4,479,065 

Butter  and  Cheese 68,634,224  "  "  15     "  10,295,133 

Beeswax  and  Honey 7,964,760  '♦  "  15    "  1,194,714 

Cotton 978,311,600  "  "  8    "  78,264,928 

Cane  Sugar 237,133,000  "  "  7     '• 16,599,310 

Rice  (rough) 215,313,497  "  "  4    " 8,612,539 


Total 4,338,370,661  lbs.  valued  as  above,  at  8155,223,415 

TOTAL   DIFFERENCE POUND-MEASCRE   PRODUCTS. 

Pou7ids.  Value. 

Free  States 28,878,064,902 $214,422,523 

Slave  States 4,338,370,661 155,223,415 


Balance  in  pounds,    24,539,694,241  Diflference  in  value,  $59,199,108 

Both  quantity  and  value  again  in  favor  of  the  North  I 
Behold  also  the  enormousness  of  the  difference  I  In  this 
comparison  with  the  South,  neither  hundreds,  thousands, 
nor  millions,  according  to  the  regular  method  of  computa- 
tion, are  sufiScient  to  exhibit  the  excess  of  the  pound- 
measure  products  of  the  North.  Recourse  must  be  had  to 
an  almost  inconceivable  number  ;  billions  must  be  called 
into  play  ;  and  there  are  the  figures  telling  us,  with  un- 
mistakable emphasis  and  distinctness,  that,  in  this  depart- 
ment of  agriculture,  as  in  every  other,  the  North  is  vastly 
the  superior  of  the  South — the  figures  showing  a  total 
balance  in  favor  of  the  former  of  twenty-four  billion  fice  huji' 


FREE  AXn  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  61 

died  and  thlrtij-nine  mdlion  sir  hundred  and  ninitij-four  thousand 
two  hundrcil  and  fort  y-ene  ^pounds,  valued  at  fifty-nine  million 
o^nt  hundred  and  ninetij-nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  eight 
dollars.  And  yet,  the  Nortli  is  a  poor,  God-forsaken  coun- 
try, bleak,  inhospitable,  and  unproductive  I 

What  next  ?  Is  it  necessary  to  adduce  other  facts  in 
order  to  prove  that  the  rural  wealth  of  the  free  States  is 
far  greater  than  that  of  the  slave  States  ?  Shall  we  make 
a  furtlicr  demonstration  of  the  fertility  of  northern  soil,  or 
bring  forward  new  evidences  of  the  inefficient  and  desola- 
ting system  of  terra-culture  in  the  South  ?  Will  nothing 
less  than  "  confirmations  strong  as  proofs  of  holy  writ,'' 
suffice  to  convince  the  South  that  she  is  standing  in  her 
own  light,  and  ruining  both  body  and  soul  by  the  reten- 
tion of  slavery  ?  Whatever  duty  and  expedience  require 
to  be  done,  we  are  willing  to  do.  Additional  proofs  are  at 
hand.  Slaveholders  and  slave-breeders  shall  be  convinced, 
confuted,  convicted,  and  converted.  They  shall,  in  their 
hearts  and  consciences,  if  not  with  their  tongues  and 
pens,  bear  testimony  to  the  triumphant  achievements  of 
free  labor.  In  the  two  tables  which  immediately  follow 
these  remarks,  they  shall  see  how  much  more  vigorous 
and  fruitful  the  soil  is  when  under  the  prudent  manage- 
ment of  free  white  husbandmen,  than  it  is  when  under  the 
rude  and  nature-murdering  tillage  of  enslaved  negroes  ; 
and  in  two  subsequent  tables  they  shall  find  that  the  live 
stock,  slaughtered  animals,  farms,  and  farming  implements 
and  machinery,  in  the  free  States,  are  worth  at  least  one 
thousand  million  of  dollars  more  than  the  market  value  of 
the  same  in  the  slave  States  I     In  the  face,  however,  of  all 


68  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

these  most  significant  and  incontrovertible  facts,  the  oli- 
garchy have  the  unparalleled  audacity  to  tell  us  that  the 
South  is  the  greatest  agricultural  country  in  the  world, 
and  that  the  North  is  a  dreary  waste,  unfit  for  cultivation, 
and  quite  dependent  on  us  for  the  necessaries  of  life.  How 
preposterously  false  all  such  babble  is,  the  followins: 
tables  will  show : — 


FREE    AND   THE    SI^VE    STATKS. 


69 


TA15I.K    NO.    XVI. 

ACTUAL    CKOrS    PER    ACKE    ON    THE    AVEilAGE  IN  TUE    TREE 
STATES 1850. 


States. 

Wheat, 

bUrthflrt, 

Oatu, 
bushfla. 

Rye. 
buabcls. 

Iiid.   Corn, 
bushels. 

Irish  Pota- 
toes, buoh. 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

Indiana    

11 

12 

11 

10 
10 
10 

11 
11 

12 
12 
lo 

1:3 
14 

21 

21) 
20 
30 

26 
26 
30 
26 
25 
21 

30 

35 

14 

18 

13 

17 

25 

20 

40 
33 
33 
32 
27 
31 
32 
30 
33 
27 
30 
20 

32 

30 

85 
115 
100 

Iowa    

100 

120 

Massachusetts 

^liclii'^nn 

170 
140 

New  Ilanipsliirc.. . 

New  JfiM  y 

New  York 

Ohio 

220 
100 

Pennsvlvania 

Rliode  Island 

Vermont 

^Visconsin 

75 

100 
178 

161 

325 

107 

436 

1,503 

TABI.K    NO.    XVII. 

ACTUAL  CROrS  PER  ACRE  ON  THE  AVERAGE  IN  THE  SLAVE 
STATES 1850. 


StatfH. 


Wheal, 
bUbheld. 


Alabama. 
Arkansas. 
Delaware. 

Florida  . . 
Gcoriiia. , 


Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri , 

North  Carolina, , 
S«>ulh  Carolina.. 

'J't-nnessee 

To.xas 

Virsinia 


11 

15| 
5 


13, 

111 

7l 


15 


121 


Oats, 

Hye, 

Ind.   Corn. 

IriHh  I'ota- 

bushels. 

buohels.   1    bushels. 

too8,  bush. 

12 

15 

60 

18 

22 

20 

20 

175 

18 

7 

16 

125 

18 

11 

24 
16 

130 

21 

18 

23 

75 

12 

18 

105 

20 

34 

110 

10 

15             17 

65 

12 

1             11 

70 

10 

7,            21 

120 

20 

250 

13 

5              18 

75 

199 

63 

275 

1,300 

10 


COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 


RECAPITl'I  ATION    OF    ACTUAL    CROPS    PER   ACRE    ON   THE 
AVERAGE 1850. 


FREE   STATES. 

Wheat 12  bushels  per  acre. 

Oats 27 

Rye 18 

Indian  Corn  31         "  " 

Irish  Potatoes  125    "  " 


SLAVE  STATES. 

Wheat    9  bushels  per  acre. 

Oats 17 

Rye 11         "  « 

Indian  Corn. 20         "  " 

Irish  Potatoes  113     "  " 


"What  an  obvious  contrast  between  the  vigor  of  Liberty 
and  the  impotence  of  Slavery!  What  an  unanswerable 
argument  in  favor  of  free  labor  I  Add  up  the  two  columns 
of  figures  above,  and  what  is  the  result  ?  Two  hundred 
and  thirteen  bushels  as  the  products  of  five  acres  in  the 
North,  and  only  one  hundred  and  seventy  bushels  as  the 
products  of  five  acres  in  the  South.  Look  at  each  item 
separately,  and  you  will  find  that  the  average  crop  per 
acre  of  every  article  enumerated  is  greater  in  the  free 
States  than  it  is  in  the  slave  States.  Examine  the  table 
at  large,  and  you  will  perceive  that  while  Massachusetts 
produces  sixteen  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  Virginia 
produces  only  seven  ;  that  Pennsylvania  produces  fifteen 
and  Georgia  only  five  :  that  while  Iowa  produces  thirty- 
six  bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre,  Mississippi  produces  only 
twelve  ;  that  Rhode  Island  produces  thirty,  and  North  Ca- 
rolina only  ten  :  that  while  Ohio  produces  twenty-five 
bushels  of  rye  to  the  acre,  Kentucky  produces  only  eleven; 
that  Vermont  produces  twenty,  and  Tennessee  only  seven: 
that  while  Connecticut  produces  forty  bushels  of  Indian 
corn  to  the  acre,  Texas  produces  only  twenty  ;  that  New 
Jersey  produces  thirty-three,  and  South  Carolina  only 
eleven  :  that  while  New  Hampshire  produces  two  hundred 
and  twenty  bushels  of  Irish  potatoes  to  the  acre,  Maryland 
produces  only  seventy-five  ;  that  Michigan  produces  one 
hundred  and  forty,  and  Alabama  only  sixty.  Now  for 
other  beauties  c  ^  slavery  in  another  table. 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES. 


Tl 


TABL,i:    NO.    XVI IT. 

VALUE    OF    FARMS    AND  DOMESTIC    ANIMALS  IN  THE  FllEE  STATES 

—1850. 

l^oehVal.  of  Farms, 
Farm.  Imp.  &.Mac. 


Btates. 


California 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts.  . . 

Michiijan 

New  Hampshire.. 

New  Jersev 

New  York. 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania. .  .. 
Rhode  Island..  . 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 


Value  of 

Val.  of  Animals 

Live  Stock. 

Slaughtered. 

Sn,:3o  1,058 

S107,173 

7,4G7,49l) 

2,202,266 

24,209,258 

4,972,286 

22,478,555 

6,567,935 

3,089,275 

821.164 

9,705  726 

1,646,773 

9,047,710 

2,500,924 

8,008,734 

1,328,327 

8,871,901 

1,522,873 

10,679,291 

2,638,552 

73,570,499 

13,573,883 

44.121,741 

7,439,243 

41,500,053 

8,219,848 

1,532.637 

667,486 

12,643,228 

1,861,336 

4,897,385 

920,178 

S286,376.541 

S56,990,237 

S3,977,524 

74,618.963 

102,538,851 

143,089,617 

17,830,436 

57,146,305 

112,285,931 

54,763,817 

57,560,122 

124,663,014 

576,631,568 

371,509,188 

422,598,640 

17,568,003 

66,100,509 

30,170,131 


S2,233.058  619 


TABLK    NO.    XIX. 

VALUE    OF  FARMS  AND  DOMESTIC  ANIMALS  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES 
—1850. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Geomia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi. . .. 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Te.xas 

Virginia 


Value  of 
Live  Stock. 

S21.690,112 

6,647,969 

1,819,281 

2,880,058 

25,728.416 

29,661,436 

11,152,275 

7,997,634 

19,403,662 

19,887,580 

17,717,647 

15,060,015 

29,978,016 

10,412,927 

33,656,659 

S253,723,687 


Val.  of  Animals  i  CashV^al.  of  Farm^*, 
Slaughtered.         Farm.  Imp.  &  Mac. 


S4, 82  3, 485 
1,163,313 
373,605 
514,685 
6,339,762 
6,462,598 
1,458,990 
1,954,800 
3,636.582 
3,367,106 
5,767,866 
3,502.637 
6,401,765  I 
1,116.137 
7,502,986  i 


869,448,887 

16,866,541 

19,390,310 

6,981,904 

101,617,595 

160,190,299 
87,391,336 
89,641,988 
60.501,561 
67,207  068 
71,823,298 
86,-')68,038 

103,211,122 
18,701,712 

223,423,315 


$54,388,377  ;    81,183,996,274 


72  COMPARISON   BETWEEN  THE 

RECAPITULATION FREE  STATES. 

Value  of  live  Stock $286,376,541 

Value  of  Animals  slaughtered, 56,990,237 

Value  of  Farms,  Farming-Implements  and  Machinery,  2,233,058,619 

82,576,425,397 
RECAPITULATION — SLAVE   STATES. 

Value  of  Live  Stock $253,723,687 

Value  of  Animals  slaughtered 64,388,377 

Value  of  Farms,  Farming  Implements  and  Machinery,  1,183,995,274 

$1,492,107,338 

DIFFERENCE   IN    VALUE FARMS   AND   DOMESTIC   ANIMALS. 

FreeStates,   $2,576,425,397 

Slave  States 1,492,107,338 

Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States $1,084,318,059 

By  adding  to  this  last  balance  in  favor  of  the  free  States 
the  differences  in  value  which  we  found  in  their  favor  in 
our  account  of  the  bushel-and-pound-measure  products,  we 
shall  have  a  very  correct  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  the 
undivided  agricultural  interests  of  the  free  States  prepon- 
derate over  those  of  the  slave  States.  Let  us  add  the  dif- 
ferences together,  and  see  what  will  be  the  result. 

BALANCES ALL  IN  FAVOR  OF  THE  NORTH. 

Difference  in  the  value  of  bushel-measure  products,.  $44,782,636 
Difference  in  the  value  of  pound-measure  products..  59,199,108 
Difference  in  the  value  of  farms  and  domestic  animals  1,084,318,059 

Total $1,188,299,803 

No  figures  of  rhetoric  can  add  emphasis  or  significance 
to  these  figures  of  arithmetic.    They  demonstrate  concltt- 


FREE    AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  73 

sively  the  great  moral  triumph  of  Liberty  over  Slavery. 
They  show  uiie(|iiivocally,  in  spite  of  all  the  blarmy  and 
boasting  of  slave-driving  politiciaas,  that  the  entire  value 
of  all  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  free  States  is  very 
nearly  twice  as  great  as  the  entire  value  of  all  the  agricul- 
tural interests  of  the  slave  States — the  value  of  those  in- 
terests in  the  former  being  twenty-five  hundred  million  of 
dollars,  that  of  those  in  the  latter  only  fourteen  hundred 
million,  leaving  a  balance  in  favor  of  the  free  States  of 
ojie  billion  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  million  two  hundred  and 
ainety-nine  thousand  eight  hundred  and  three  dollars  !  That  is 
what  we  call  a  full,  fair  and  complete  vindication  of  Free 
Labor.  Would  we  not  be  correct  in  calling  it  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  Black  Orb  ?  Can  it  be  possible  that  the 
slavocracy  will  ever  have  the  hardihood  to  open  their 
mouths  again  on  the  subject  of  terra-culture  in  the  South  ? 
Dare  they  ever  think  of  cotton  again  ?  Ought  they  not, 
as  a  befitting  confession  of  their  crimes  and  misdemeanors, 
and  as  a  reasonable  expiation  for  the  countless  evils  which 
they  have  inflicted  on  society,  to  clothe  themselves  in 
sackcloth,  and,  after  a  suitable  season  of  contrition  and 
severe  penance,  follow  the  example  of  one  Judas  Iscariot, 
and  go  and  hang  themselves  ? 

It  will  be  observed  that  we  have  omitted  the  Territories 
and  the  District  of  Columbia  in  all  the  preceding  tables. 
We  did  this  purposely.  Our  object  was  to  draw  an  equi- 
table comparison  between  the  value  of  free  and  slave  labor 
in  the  thirty-one  sovereign  States,  where  the  two  systems, 
comparatively  unaffected  by  the  wrangling  of  politicians, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  free  from  the  interference  of 


74  COMPARISON   BETWEEN   THE 

the  general  government,  have  had  the  fuUt-ot  opf  ortunities 
to  exert  their  influence,  to  exhibit  their  virtues,  and  to 
commend  themselves  to  the  sober  judgments  of  enlightened 
and  discriminating  minds.  Had  we  counted  the  Territories 
on  the  side  of  the  North,  and  the  District  of  Columbia  on 
the  side  of  the  South,  the  result  would  have  been  still 
greater  in  behalf  of  free  labor.  Though  "  the  sum  of  all 
villanies"  has  but  a  mere  nominal  existence  in  Delaware 
and  Maryland,  we  have  invariably  counted  those  States  on 
the  side  of  the  South  ;  and  the  consequence  is,  that,  in 
many  particulars,  the  hopeless  fortunes  of  slavery  have 
been  propped  up  and  sustained  by  an  imposing  array  of 
figures  which  of  right  ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  property 
of  freedom.  But  we  like  to  be  generous  to  an  unfortunate 
foe,  and  would  utterly  disdain  the  use  of  any  unfair  means 
of  attack  or  defence. 

We  shall  take  no  undue  advantage  of  slavery.  It  shall 
have  a  fair  trial,  and  be  judged  accordi-ng  to  its  deserts. 
Already  has  it  been  weighed  in  the  balance,  and  found 
wanting  ;  it  has  been  measured  in  the  half-bushel,  and 
found  wanting  ;  it  has  been  apprized  in  the  field,  and  found 
wanting.  Whatever  redeeming  traits  or  qualities  it  may 
possess,  if  any,  shall  be  brought  to  light  by  subjecting  it 
to  other  tests. 

It  was  our  desire  and  intention  to  furnish  a  correct  table 
of  the  gallon-measure  products  of  the  several  States  of  the 
Union  ;  but  we  have  not  been  successful  in  our  attempt  to 
procure  the  necessary  statistics.  Enough  is  known,  how- 
ever, to  satisfy  us  that  the  value  cf  the  milk,  wine,  ardent 
spirits,  malt  liquors,  fluids,  oils,  and  molasses,  annually 


FREE    AXn    THE    SLAVE    STATES  75 

produced  and  sold  in  the  free  States,  is  at  east  fifty  mil- 
lions of  dollars  g^reatcr  than  the  value  of  the  same  articles 
annually  produced  and  sold  in  the  slave  States.  Of  sweet 
milk  alone,  it  is  estimated  that  the  monthly  sales  in  three 
Northern  cities,  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Boston, 
amount  to  a  larger  sum  than  the  marketable  value  of  all 
the  rosin,  tar,  pitch,  and  turpentine,  annually  produced  in 
the  Southern  States. 

Our  efforts  to  obtain  reliable  information  respecting 
another  very  important  branch  of  profitable  industry,  the 
lumber  business,  have  also  proved  unavailing  ;  and  we  are 
left  to  conjecture  as  to  the  amount  of  revenue  annually 
derived  from  it  in  the  two  grand  divisions  of  our  country-. 
The  person  whose  curiosity  prompts  him  to  take  an 
account  of  the  immense  piles  of  Northern  lumber  now  lying 
on  the  wharves  and  houseless  lots  in  Baltimore,  Richmond, 
and  other  slaveholding  cities,  will  not,  we  imagine,  form 
a  ver}'  flattering  opinion  of  the  products  of  Southern  for 
csts.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  nearly  all  the  clippers, 
steamers,  and  small  craft,  are  built  at  the  North  ;  that 
large  cargoes  of  Eastern  lumber  are  exported  to  foreign 
countries  ;  that  nine-tenths  of  the  wooden-ware  used  in  the 
Southern  States  is  manufactured  in  New  England  ;  that, 
in  outrageous  disregard  of  the  natural  rights  and  claims 
of  Southern  mechanics,  the  markets  of  the  South  are  for- 
ever filled  with  Northern  furniture,  vehicles,  ax  helves, 
walking  canes,  yard-sticks,  clothes-pins  and  pen-holders 
that  the  extraordinary  number  of  factories,  sieam-cngines, 
forges  and  machine-she ps  in  the  free  States,  require  an 
extraordinary  quantity  of  cord-v.ood  ;  that  a  large  majority 


76  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

of  the  magnificent  edifices  and  other  structures,  boki 
private  and  public,  in  which  timber,  in  its  various  forms, 
is  extensively  used,  are  to  be  found  in  the  free  States — 
we  say,  let  all  these  things  be  remembered,  and  the  truth 
will  at  once  flash  across  the  mind  that  the  forests  of  the 
North  are  a  source  of  far  greater  income  than  those  of  the 
South.  The  difference  is  simply  this  :  At  the  North  every- 
thing is  turned  to  advantage.  When  a  tree  is  cut  down, 
the  main  body  is  sold  or  used  for  lumber,  railing  or  paling, 
the  stump  for  matches  and  shoepegs,  the  knees  for  ship- 
building, and  the  branches  for  fuel.  At  the  Soutu  every- 
thing is  either  neglected  or  mismanaged.  Whole  forests 
are  fcllad  by  the  ruthless  hand  of  slavery,  the  trees  are 
cut  into  logfi,  rolled  into  heaps,  covered  with  the  limbs 
and  brush,  and  then  burned  on  the  identical  soil  that  gave 
them  birth.  The  land  itself  next  falls  a  prey  to  the  fell 
destroyer,  and  that  which  was  once  a  beautiful,  fertile  and 
luxuriant  woodland,  is  soon  despoiled  of  all  its  treasures, 
and  converted  into  an  eye-offending  desert. 

Were  we  to  go  beneath  the  soil  and  collect  all  the  min- 
eral and  lapidarious  wealth  of  the  free  States,  we  should 
find  it  so  much  greater  than  the  corresponding  wealth  of 
the  slave  States,  that  no  ordinary  combination  cf  figures 
would  suffice  to  express  the  difference.  To  say  nothing 
of  the  gold  and  quicksilver  of  California,  the  ir^..  and  coal 
of  Pennsylvania,  the  copper  of  ^lichigan,  the  lead  of  Illi- 
nois, or  the  salt  of  New-York,  the  marble  and  freestone  quar- 
ries of  New  England  are,  incredible  as  it  may  seem  to  those  unac- 
qitainteii  icith  the  facts,  far  more  important  sources  of  revenue 
than  all  the  subterranean  deposits  in  the  slave  States.     From  the 


Fnn-:  axp  the  sr.AVK  states.  17 

most  reliable  statictics  witiiia  onv  roach,  we  ire  led  to  the 
inference  that  the  total  value  of  all  the  precious  metals, 
rocks,  mir.erals,  and  medicinal  waters,  annually  extracted 
from  the  bowels  of  the  free  States,  is  not  less  than  eighty- 
five  million  of  dollars  ;  the  whole  value  of  the  same  sub- 
stances annually  brought  np  from  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  slave  States  does  not  exceed  twelve  millions.  In  this 
respect  to  what  is  our  poverty  ascribable  ?  To  the  same 
cause  that  has  impoverished  and  dishonored  us  in  all  other 
respects  —  the  thriftless  and  degrading  institution  of 
slavery. 

Nature  has  been  kind  to  us  in  all  things.  The  strata 
and  substrata  of  the  South  are  profusely  enriched  with 
gold  and  silver,  and  precious  stones,  and  from  the  natural 
orifices  and  aqueducts  inVirgina  and  North  Carolina,  flow 
the  purest  healing  waters  in  the  world.  But  of  what  avail 
is  all  this  latent  wealth  ?  Of  what  avail  will  it  ever  be, 
so  long  as  slavery  is  permitted  to  play  the  dog  in  the 
manger  ?  To  these  queries  there  can  be  but  one  reply. 
Slavery  must  be  suppressed  ;  the  South,  so  great  and  so 
glorious  by  nature,  must  be  reclaimed  from  her  infamy 
and  degradation  ;  our  cities,  fields  and  forests,  must  be 
kept  intact  from  the  unsparing  monste:  ;  the  various 
and  ample  resources  of  our  vast  domain,  subterrarcous  as 
well  as  superficial,  must  be  developed,  and  made  to  con- 
tribute to  our  pleasures  and  to  the  necessities  of  the 
world. 

A  very  significant  chapter,  and  one  particularly  perti- 
nent to  many  of  the  preceding  pages,  might  be  written 
on  the  Decline  of  Agriculture  in  the  Slave  States  ;  but  as 


78  COMPARISON    BETWEEN    THE 

the  press  of  other  subjects  admonishes  us  to  be  concise 
upon  this  point,  we  shall  present  only  a  few  of  the  more 
striking  instances.  In  the  first  place,  let  us  compare  the 
crops  of  wheat  and  r^^e  in  Kentucky,  in  1850,  with  the 
corresponding  crops  in  the  same  State  in  1840  —  after 
which,  we  will  apply  a  similar  rule  of  comparison  to  two 
or  three  other  slaveholding  states. 

KENTUCKY. 

Wheat,  bus.  Rye,  bus. 

Crop  ofl840 4;803,152  1,321,373 

"    "1850 2,142,822  415,073 

Decrease    2^660,330  bus.         Decrease-  906,300  bus. 

TENNESSEE. 

Wheat,  bus.  Tobacco,  lbs. 

Crop  of  1840 4,569,692  29,550,432 

"     "  1850 1,019,386  20,148,932 

Decrease    2,950,306  bus.    Decrease     9,401,500  lbs. 

VIRGINIA. 

Rye,  bus.  Tobacco,  lbs. 

Crop  of  1840 1,482,799  75,347,106 

«     "1850 458,930  56,803,227 

Decrease     1,023,869  bus.    Decrease  18,543,879  lbs. 

ALABAMA. 

Wheat,  bus.  Rye,bu<!. 

Crop  of  1840 838,05:i  51,000 

"     •'  1850 294,044  17,261 

Decrease    544,008  bus.        Decrease     33,739  bus. 

The  story  of  these  figures  is  too  intelligible  to  require 
words  of  explanation  ;  we  shall,  therefore,  drop  this  part 


FREE    A\0    THE    SLAVE    STATE5.  t9 

c»f  our  subject,  and  proceed  to  compile  a  couple  of  tables 
that  will  exhibit  on  a  single  page  the  wealth,  revenue  and 
expenditure,  of  the  several  states  of  the  confederacy.  Let 
it  be  distinctly  understood,  however,  that,  in  the  compila- 
tion of  these  tables,  three  million  two  hundred  and  four 
thousand  three  hundred  and  thirteen  negroes  are  valued 
as  personal  property,  and  credited  to  the  Southern  States 
as  if  they  were  so  many  horses  and  asses,  or  bridles  and 
blankets  —  and  that  no  monetary  valuation  whatever  is 
placed  on  any  creature,  of  any  age,  colcr,  sex  or  condi- 
tion, that  bears  the  upright  form  of  man  ii  the  free  Statefl. 


80 


COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 


TABLE    NO.   XX. 

WEALTH,  REVENUE    ANP    EXPENIITURE    OF    TUE    FREE    5TATES-- 

1850. 


Sl:UC8. 

Real  and  Tereonal 
property. 

Revenue. 

Expenditure. 

California 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

S22,161,872 

155,707,980 

156,265,006 

202,650,264 

23,714,638 

122,777,571 

573,342,286 

59,787,255 

103,052,835 

153,151,619 

1,080,309,216 

504,726,120 

729,144,998 

80,508,794 

92,205,049 

42,056,595 

S4,102,172,108 

S-366,825 

150,189 

736,030 

1,283,064 

139,681 

744,879 

598,170 

548.326 

141,686 

139,166 

2,698,310 

3,016,403 

7,716,552 

124,944 

185,830 

135,155 

S925,625 
137,326 
192,940 

1,061,605 
131,631 
624,101 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

New  Hampshire.. 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

674,622 

431,918 

149,890 

180,614 

2,520,932 

2,736.060 

6,876,480 

115,835 

183,058 

136,096 

P^ 

S18,725,211 

S17,076,733 

TABLE    NO.    XXI. 

WBALTH,  REVENUE  AND  EXPENDITURE  OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 

1850. 


FREE    AND    TRR    SI.AVF     STATF.3.  81 

Entire  Wealth  of  the  Free  States, S4,  02,172,108 

Entire  Wealtii  of  the  Slave  States,  iiicliuling  Slaves,      2./);]G,0'.U),7:37 

Balance  in  favor  of  tlie  Free  States, Si, 160,081, :J71 

AVliat  a  towering  moiiuincnt  to  the  beauty  and  g"lory  of 
Free  Labor  I  AVliat  irrefragable  evidence  of  the  unequaled 
efficacy  and  grandeur  of  free  institutions  I  These  figures 
are,  indeed,  too  full  of  meaning  to  be  passed  by  without 
comment.  The  two  tables  from  which  they  are  borrowed 
are  at  least  a  volume  within  themselves  ;  and,  after  all  the 
pains  we  have  taken  to  compile  them,  we  sliall,  i)erhaps, 
feel  somewhat  disappointed  if  the  reader  fails  to  avail  liim- 
self  of  the  important  information  they  impart. 

Human  life,  in  all  ages,  has  been  made  up  of  a  series  of 
adventures  and  experiments,  and  even  at  this  stage  of  the 
world's  existence,  we  are  almost  as  destitute  of  a  perfect 
rule  of  action,  sccuhir  or  religious,  as  were  the  erratic  co- 
temporaries  of  Noah.  It  is  true,  however,  that  we  have 
made  some  progress  in  the  right  direction  ;  and  as  it  seems 
to  be  tlie  tendency  of  the  world  to  correct  itself,  we  may 
suppose  that  future  generations  will  be  enabled,  by  intui- 
tion, to  discriminate  between  the  true  and  the  false,  tlie 
good  and  the  bad,  and  that  with  the  development  of  this  fac- 
ulty of  the  mind,  error  and  discord  will  begin  to  wane,  and 
finally  cease  to  exist.  Of  all  the  experiments  that  have 
been  tried  by  the  people  in  America,  slavery  has  proved 
the  most  fatal  ;  and  the  sooner  it  is  abolished  the  better  it 
will  be  for  us,  for  posterity,  and  for  the  world.  One  of 
the  evils  resulting  from  it,  and  that  not  the  least,  is  ap- 

pai'-nt  in  the  figures  above.     Indeed,  the  unprofUalleiiess  of 
4* 


82 


COMPARISON    BETWEEN  THE 


slavery  is  a  monstrous  evil,  when  considered  in  all  its 
bearings  ;  it  makes  us  poor  ;  poverty  makes  us  ignorant ; 
ignorance  makes  us  wretched  ;  wretchedness  makes  us 
wicked,  and  wickedness  leads  to  the  devil  I 

"Ignorance  is  the  curse  of  God, 

Knowledge  the  wing  wherewith  we  fly  to  heaven." 

Facts  truly  astounding  are  disclosed  in  the  two  last 
tables,  and  we  could  heartily  wish  that  every  intelligent 
American  w^ould  commit  them  to  memory.  The  total 
value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property  of  the  free 
States,  with  an  area  of  only  612,597  square  miles,  is  one 
billion  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  million  eighty-one  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  seventy-one  dollars  greater  than 
the  total  value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property,  in- 
cluding the  price  of  3,204,313  negroes,  of  the  slave  States, 
which  have  an  area  of  851,508  square  miles  I  But  extra- 
ordinary as  this  difference  is  in  favor  of  the  North,  it  is 
much  less  than  the  true  amount.  On  the  authority  of  South- 
rons themselves,  it  is  demonstraUe  beyond  the  'possibility  of  refu- 
tation that  the  intrinsic  value  of  all  the  property  in  the  free  States 
is  more  than  three  times  greater  than  the  intrinsic  value  of  all  the 
property  in  the  slave  States. 

James  Madison,  a  Southern  man,  fourth  President  of  the 
United  States,  a  most  correct  thinker,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  statesmen  the  country  has  produced,  "  thought  it 
wrong  to  admit  the  idea  that  there  could  be  property  in 
man,"  and  we  indorse,  to  the  fullest  extent,  this  opinion  of 
the  profound  editor  of  the  Federalist.  We  shall  not  recog- 
nize property  in  man  ;   the  slaves  of  the  South  are  not 


/REE    AND    THE    SI^VE    STA.ES.  83 

wvUh  a  groat  in  any  civilized  community  ;  no  man  cf  gCD' 
uine  decency  and  refinement  would  hold  them  as  property 
on  any  terms  ;  in  the  eyes  of  all  enlightened  nations  and 
individuals,  they  are  men,  not  merchandize.  Southern 
pro-slavery  politicians,  some  of  whom  have  not  hesitated 
to  buy  and  sell  their  own  sons  and  daughters,  boast  that 
the  slaves  of  the  South  are  worth  sixteen  hundred  million 
of  dollars,  and  we  have  seen  the  amount  estimated  as  high 
as  two  thousand  million.  Mr.  De  Bow,  the  Southern  su- 
perintendent of  the  seventh  census,  informs  us  that  the 
value  of  all  the  property  in  the  slave  States,  real  and  per- 
sonal, including  slaves,  was,  in  1850,  only  $2,930,090,737; 
while,  according  to  the  same  authority,  the  value  of  all 
the  real  and  personal  property  in  the  free  States,  genuine 
property,  property  that  is  evcr^^wherc  recognized  as  pro- 
perty, was,  at  the  same  time,  $4,102,172,108.  Now  all 
we  have  to  do  in  order  to  ascertain  the  real  value  of  all 
the  property  of  the  South,  independent  of  negroes,  whose 
value,  if  valuable  at  all,  is  of  a  local  and  precarious  char- 
acter, is  to  subtract  from  the  sum  total  of  Mr.  De  Bow's 
return  of  the  entire  wealth  of  the  slave  States  the  estima- 
ted value  of  the  slaves  themselves  ;  and  then,  by  deduct- 
ing the  difference  from  the  intrinsic  value  of  all  the  pro- 
perty in  the  free  States,  we  shall  have  the  exact  amount 
of  the  overplus  of  wealth  in  the  glorious  land  of  free  soil^ 
free  labor,  free  speech,  free  presses,  and  free  schools. 
And  now  to  the  task. 

Entire  Wealth  of  the  Slave  States,  including  Slaves  $2,9^6,090,737 
Estimated  Value  of  the  Slaves, 1,600,000,000 

True  Wealth  of  the  Slave  States, $1,336,090,737 


84  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

True  Wealth  of  the  Free  States, S4.102;:72;108 

True  Wealth  of  the  Slave  States, 1 ,336,090,737 

Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States, ■  ..     $2,766,081,371 

There,  friends  of  the  South  and  of  the  North,  you  have 
the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter.  Liberty  and  slavery 
are  before  you  ;  choose  which  you  will  have  ;  as  for  us,  in 
the  memorable  language  of  the  immortal  Ilenry,  we  say, 
"  give  us  liberty,  or  give  us  death  I'^  In  the  great  struggle 
for  wealth  that  has  been  going  on  between  the  two  rival 
systems  of  free  and  slave  labor,  the  balance  above  exhibits 
the  net  projfits  of  the  former.  The  struggle  on  the  one  side 
has  been  calm,  laudable,  and  eminently  successful ;  on  the 
other,  it  has  been  attended  by  tumult,  unutterable  cruelties 
and  disgraceful  failure.  We  have  given  the  slave  drivers 
every  conceivable  opportunity  to  vindicate  their  domestic 
policy,  but  for  them  to  do  it  is  a  moral  impossibility. 

Less  than  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago — say  in.l789, 
for  that  was  about  the  average  time  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  Northern  States — the  South,  with  advan- 
tages in  soil,  climate,  rivers,  harbors,  minerals,  forests, 
and,  indeed,  almost  every  other  natural  resource,  began  an 
even  race  with  the  North  in  all  the  important  pursuits  of 
life  ;  and  now,  in  the  brief  space  of  scarce  three  score 
years  and  ten,  we  find  her  completely  distanced,  enervated, 
dejected  and  dishonored.  Slave-drivers  are  the  sole  authors 
of  her  disgrace  ;  as  they  have  sown  so  let  them  reap. 

As  we  have  seen  above,  a  careful  and  correct  inventory 
of  all  the  real  and  personal  jprojperty  in  the  two  grand  divi- 
sions of  the  country,  discloses  the  astounding  fact  that,  in 
1850   tho  free  States  were  worth  precisely  two  thousand 


FREE    AXn   THE    SLAVE    STArE.-?.  f** 

JfiYW  hiindrtil  and  sutif-six  miifKrii  eight ijh.m  l/ioiisa:.*l  three  hun- 
drexl  and  scvcnfif-f'nc  dollars  more  than  the  slave  States  I 
T\^enty-8even  Inindred  and  sixty-six  million  of  dollars  ! — 
Think  i»f  it  I  AVhat  a  vast  and  desirable  sum,  and  how 
much  better  ofl'  the  South  would  be  with  it  than  without 
it  !  Suoh  is  the  enormous  amount  out  of  which  slavery 
has  defrauded  us  duriuf^  the  space  of  sixty-cjne  years — • 
from  1789  to  1850 — being  an  average  of  about  forty-five 
million  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  annum. 
During  the  last  twenty-five  or  thirty  years,  however,  our 
annual  losses  have  been  far  greater  than  they  were  form- 
erly. There  has  been  a  gradual  increase  every  year,  and 
now  the  ratio  of  increase  is  almost  incredible.  No  patri- 
otic Southerner  can  become  conversant  with  the  facts 
without  experiencing  a  feeling  of  alarm  and  indignation. 
Until  the  North  abolished  slavery,  she  had  no  advantage 
of  us  whatever  ;  the  South  was  more  than  her  equal  in 
every  respect.  But  no  sooner  had  she  got  rid  of  that 
hampering  and  pernicious  institution  than  she  began  to 
absorb  our  wealth,  and  now  it  is  confidently  believed  that 
the  merchants  and  negro-driving  pleasure-seekers  of  the 
South  annually  pour  one  hundred  and  twenty  million  of 
dollars  into  her  coffers  1  Taking  into  account,  then,  the 
probable  amount  of  money  that  has  been  drawn  from  the 
South  and  invested  in  the  North  within  the  last  six  years, 
and  adding  it  to  the  grand  balance  above — the  net  profits 
of  the  North  up  to  1850 — it  may  be  safely  assumed  that, 
in  the  present  year  of  grace,  1857,  the  free  States  are  icorth 
at  least  thirty-four  hundred  million  of  dollars  more  thun  the  start 
States!     Let  hira  who  dares,  gainsay  these  remarks  and 


86  COMPARISON   BETWEEN  THE 

calcQlations  ;  no  truthful  tongue  will  deny  them  ;   no  hon- 
orable pen  can  controvert  them. 

One  more  word  now  as  to  the  valuation  of  negroes. 
Were  our  nature  so  degraded,  or  our  conscience  so  elastic 
as  to  permit  us  to  set  a  price  upon  men,  as  we  would  set 
a  price  upon  cattle  and  corn,  we  should  be  content  to  abide 
by  the  appraisement  of  the  slaves  of  the  South,  and  would 
then  enter  into  a  calculation  to  ascertain  the  value  of  for- 
eigners to  the  North.  Not  long  since,  it  was  declared  in 
the  South  that  "  one  free  laborer  is  equal  to  five  slaves," 
and  as  there  are  two  million  five  hundred  thousand  Euro- 
peans in  the  free  States,  all  of  whom  are  free  laborers,  we 
might  bring  Southern  authority  to  back  us  in  estimating 
their  value  at  sixty-two  hundred  million  of  dollars  —  a  hand 
some  sum  wherewithal  to  ofiset  the  account  of  sixteen  hun- 
dred million  of  dollars,  brought  forward  as  the  value  of 
Southern  slaves!  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  if  we  were 
disposed  to  follow  the  barbarian  example  of  the  traffick- 
ers in  human  flesh,  w^e  could  prove  the  North  vastly 
richer  than  the  South  in  bone  and  sinew — to  say  nothing 
of  mind  and  morals,  which  shall  receive  our  attention 
hereafter.  The  North  has  just  as  good  a  right  to  appraise 
the  Irish  immigrant,  as  the  South  has  to  set  a  price  on 
the  African  slave.  But  as  it  would  be  wrong  to  do  either, 
we'  shall  do  neither.  It  is  not  our  business  to  think  of 
man  as  a  merchantable  commodity  ;  and  we  will  not,  even 
by  implication,  admit  "the  wild  and  guilty  fantasy," 
that  the  condition  of  chattelhood  may  rightfully  attach  to 
sontient  and  immortal  beings. 

In  this  connection,  we  would  direct  the  special  atten- 


FREE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATr.S.  87 

tion  of  the  reader  to  tlie  following  eloquent  passage,  ex- 
hibiting the  philosophy  of  free  and  slave  labor,  from  the 
facile  i)en  of  the  editor  of  the  North  Anw lean  and  United 
States  Gazette : 

"In  the  very  nature  of  things,  the  freeman  must  pro- 
duce more  than  the  slave.  There  is  no  conclusiou  (»!' 
science  more  certain.  Under  a  system  Avhich  gives  to  ;i 
laboring  man  the  fruit  of  his  toil,  there  is  every  motive  to 
render  him  diligent  and  assiduous.  If  he  relies  on  being 
employed  by  others,  his  wages  rise  with  his  reputation  for 
industry,  skill,  and  faithfulness.  And  as  owner  of  the 
soil,  there  is  every  assurance  that  he  will  do  what  he  can 
to  cultivate  it  to  the  best  advantage,  and  develope  its  la- 
tent wealth.  Self-interest  will  call  forth  what  powers  of 
intellect  and  of  invention  he  has  to  aid  him  in  his  work, 
and  employ  his  physical  strength  to  the  greatest  possible 
advantage.  Free  labor  receives  an  immediate  reward, 
which  cheers  and  invigorates  it ;  and  above  all,  it  has 
that  chief  spring  of  exertion,  hope,  whose  bow  always 
spans  the  heaven  before  it.  It  has  an  inviolate  hearth  ; 
it  has  a  home.  But  it  looks  forward  to  a  still  better  con- 
dition, to  brighter  prospects  in  the  future,  to  wdiicli  its 
efforts  all  contribute.  The  children  in  such  a  household 
are  chief  inducements  to  nerve  the  arm  of  labor,  that  they 
may  be  properly  cared  for,  fed,  clothed,  educated,  accom- 
plished, instructed  in  some  useful  and  honorable  calling, 
and  provided  for  when  they  shall  go  out  ui)on  the  world. 
All  its  sentiments,  religious  and  otherwise,  all  its  aflcc- 
tions  for  parents  and  kindred,  all  its  tastes  are  so  many 
impelling  and  stimulating  forces.     It  is  disposed  to  read, 


88  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

to  ornament  its  home,  to  travel,  to  enjoy  social  intercourse, 
and  to  attain  these  ends,  it  rises  to  higher  exertions  and 
a  stricter  economy  of  time  ;  it  explores  every  path  of  em- 
ployment, and  is,  therefore,  in  the  highest  degree  produc- 
tive. 

"  IIow  different  is  it  with  slave  labor  1  The  slave  toils 
for  another,  and  not  for  himself  AV'hether  he  does  little 
or  much,  whether  his  work  is  well  or  ill  performed,  he  has 
a  subsistence,  nothing  less,  nothing  more  ;  and  why  should 
he  toil  beyond  necessity  ?  He  cannot  accumulate  any 
property  for  the  decline  of  his  years,  or  to  leave  to  his 
children  when  he  is  departed.  Nay,  he  cannot  toil  to  bet- 
ter the  present  condition  of  his  children.  They  belong  to 
another,  and  not  to  him.  He  cannot  supply  his  hut  with 
comforts,  or  embellish  it  with  the  adornments  of  taste. 
He  does  not  read.  He  does  not  journey  for  pleasure.  In- 
ducements to  exertion,  he  has  none.  That  he  may  adapt 
himself  to  his  condition,  and  enjoy  the  present  hour,  he 
deadens  those  aspirations  that  must  always  be  baffled  in 
his  case,  and  sinks  down  into  ease  and  sensuality.  His 
mind  is  unlighted  and  untutored  ;  dark  with  ignorance. 
Among  those  who  value  him  most,  he  is  proverbially  in- 
dolent, thievish,  and  neglectful  of  his  master's  interests. 
It  is  common  for  even  the  advocates  of  slavery  to  declare 
that  one  freeman  is  worth  half  a  dozen  slaves.  With  every 
cord  to  exertion  thus  sundered,  the  mind  benighted,  the 
man  nearly  lost  in  the  animal,  it  requires  no  deep  philoso- 
phy to  see  why  labor  cannot  be  near  as  productive  as  it 
would  be  were  these  conditions  all  reversed.  Though 
ever  so  well  directed  by  the  superior  Bkill,  and  urged  for- 


FRFE  AXn  THR  S  AVE  STATES  89 

wanl  by  tlic  strong]:;  arm  of  the  master,  slave  lalor  is 
necessarily  a  blight  to  the  soil  —  sterility  follows  in  its 
steps,  and  not  afar  olV. 

"  What  a  diflerence,  j)lain  and  heaven-wide,  between  the 
outward  and  interior  life  of  a  slave  and  of  a  free  commu- 
nity, resulting  directly  and  palpably  from  this  diflerence 
in  its  labor.  The  cottago-home,  amid  trees  and  shrubbery, 
its  a})artments  well  adorned  and  furnished,  books  on  its 
shelves,  and  the  passing  literature  of  the  day  scattered 
around  ;  the  few,  perhaps,  but  well-tilled  acres,  belonging 
to  the  man  who  tills  them  ;  the  happy  children  with  sunny 
prospects  ;  the  frequent  school  ;  the  church  arrayed  with 
beauty  ;  the  thriving,  handsome  village  ;  the  flourishing 
cities  and  prosperous  marts  of  trade  ;  the  busy  factories  ; 
railroads,  traffic,  travel — where  free  labor  tills  the  ground, 
how  beautiful  it  all  is  in  contrast  to  the  forlorn  and  dreary 
aspect  of  a  country  tilled  by  slaves.  The  villages  of  such 
a  country  are  mainly  groups  of  miserable  huts.  Its  com- 
paratively few  churches  are  too  often  dilapidated  and  un- 
sightly. The  common  school-house,  the  poor  man's  col- 
lege, is  hardly  known,  showing  how  little  interest  is  felt 
in  the  chief  treasures  of  the  State,  the  immortal  minds  of 
the  multitude  who  are  not  born  to  wealth.  The  signs  of 
premature  old  age  are  visibly  impressed  upon  everything 
that  meets  the  eye.  The  fields  present  a  dread  monotony. 
Everywhere  you  see  lands  that  are  worn  out,  barren  and 
deserted,  in  c/jnsequence  of  slave  tillage,  left  for  more  fer- 
tile lands  in  newer  regions,  which  are  also,  in  their  turn, 
to  be  smitten  with  sterility  and  forsaken.  The  fioc  com- 
munity may  increase  its  population  almost  without  limit. 


90  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

The  capacity  of  slave  countries  to  sustain  a  population  is 
soon  at  an  end,  and  then  it  diminishes.  In  all  the  elements 
of  essential  prosperity,  in  all  that  elevates  man,  how  strik- 
ing the  contrast  between  the  region  that  is  tilled  by  slave, 
and  the  region  that  is  tilled  by  free  labor." 

For  the  purpose  of  showing  what  Virginia,  once  the 
richest,  most  populous,  and  most  powerful  of  the  States, 
has  become  under  the  blight  of  slavery,  we  shall  now  in- 
troduce an  extract  from  one  of  the  speeches  delivered  by 
Henry  A.  Wise,  during  the  last  gubernatorial  campaign 
in  that  degraded  commonwealth.  Addressing  a  Virginia 
audience,  in  language  as  graphic  as  it  is  truthful,  he 
says  : — 

"  Commerce  has  long  ago  spread  her  sails,  and  sailed 
away  from  you.  You  have  not,  as  yet,  dug  more  than 
coal  enough  to  warm  yourselves  at  your  own  hearths;  you 
have  set  no  tilt-hammer  of  Vulcan  to  strike  blows  worthy 
of  gods  in  your  own  iron-foundries  ;  you  have  not  yet  spun 
more  than  coarse  cotton  enough,  in  the  way  of  manufac- 
ture, to  clothe  your  own  slaves.  You  have  no  commerce, 
no  mining,  no  manufactures.  You  have  relied  alone  on 
the  single  power  of  agriculture,  and  such  agriculture !  Your 
sedge-patches  outshine  the  sun.  Your  inattention  to 
your  only  source  of  wealth,  has  seared  the  very  bosom  of 
mother  earth.  Insteadof  having  to  feed  cattle  on  a  thou- 
sand hills,  you  have  had  to  chase  the  stump-tailed  steer 
through  the  sedge-patches  to  procure  a  tough  beef-steak. 
The  present  condition  of  things  has  existed  too  long  in 
Virginia     The  landlord  has  skinned  the  tenant,  and  the 


FRKK    AND    THK    .SLAVF,    STATF.S.  91 

tenant  has  skinned  the  huul,  nntil  all   have   <^i\  wi\   poor 
to^^^ether." 

AVitli  tears  in  its  eyes,  and  truth  on  its  lips,  fur  the  first 
time  after  an  interval  of  twenty  years,  the  RicJimond  in- 
quirer heli)s  to  paint  the  melancholy  picture.  In  1852,  that 
journal  thus  bewailed  the  condition  of  Virginia  : — 

"  We  have  cause  to  feel  deeply  for  our  situation.  Phil- 
adelphia herself  contains  a  population  far  greater  than 
the  whole  free  population  of  Eastern  Virginia.  The  little 
State  of  Massachusetts  has  an  aggregate  wealth  exceed- 
ing that  of  Virginia  by  more  than  $126,000,000." 

Just  a  score  of  years  before  these  words  were  penned,  the 
same  paper,  then  edited  by  the  elder  Ritchie,  made  a  most 
earnest  appeal  to  the  intelligence  and  patriotism  of  Virgi- 
nia, to  adopt  an  effectual  measure  for  the  speedy  over- 
tiirow  of  the  damnable  institution  of  human  bondage 
Uere  is  an  extract  from  an  article  which  appeared  in  its 
editorial  column  under  date  of  January  7tli,  1832  : 

"  Something  must  be  done,  and  it  is  the  part  of  no 
honest  man  to  deny  it — of  no  free  press  to  affect  to  con- 
ceal it.  When  this  dark  population  is  growing  upon  us  ; 
■when  every  new  census  is  but  gathering  its  appalling 
numbers  upon  us  ;  when,  within  a  period  equal  to  that  in 
which  this  Federal  Constitution  has  been  in  existence, 
these  numbers  will  increase  to  more  than  two  millions 
withni  Virginia  ;  when  our  sister  States  are  closing  their 
doors  upon  our  blacks  for  sale,  and  when  our  whites  are 
moving  westwardly  in  greater  numbers  than  we  like  to 
hear  of  when  this,  the  fairest  land  on  all  this  continent, 
for  soil,    and  climate  snd  situation,  combined,  might  be- 


92  comfaRison  between  the 

come  a  sort  of  garden  spot,  if  it  were  worked  .ythe  lands 
of  white  men  alone,  can  we,  ought  we,  to  sit  quietly  down, 
fold  our  arms,  and  say  to  each  other,  '  Well,  well  ;  this 
thing  will  not  come  to  the  worst  in  our  days  ;  we  will 
leave  it  to  our  children,  and  our  grandchildren,  and  great- 
grandchildren, to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  to  brave 
the  storm  I'  Is  this  to  act  like  wise  men  ?  Means,  sure 
but  gradual,  systematic  but  discreet,  ought  to  be  adopted, 
for  reducing  the  mass  of  evil  which  is  pressing  upon  the 
South,  and  will  still  more  press  upon  her,  the  longer  it  is 
put  off.  We  say  now,  in  the  utmost  sincerity  of  our  hearts, 
that  our  wisest  men  cannot  give  too  much  of  their  atten- 
tion to  this  subject,  nor  can  they  give  it  too  soon." 

Better  abolition  doctrine  than  this  is  seldom  heard. 
Why  did  not  the  Enqurier  continue  to  preach  it  ?  What 
potent  influence  hushed  its  clarion  voice,  just  as  it  began 
to  be  lifted  in  behalf  of  a  liboral  policy  and  an  enlightened 
humanity  ?  Had  Mr.  Ritchie  continued  to  press  the  truth 
home  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  as  he  should  have  done, 
Virginia,  instead  of  being  worth  only  $392,000,000  in  1850 
— negroes  and  all — would  have  been  worth  at  least  $800,- 
000,000  in  genuine  property  ;  and  if  the  State  had  eman- 
cipated her  slaves  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution, the  last  census  would  no  doubt  have  reported  her 
wealth,  and  correctly,  at  a  sum  exceeding  a  thousand 
millions  of  dollars. 

Listen  now  to  the  statement  of  a  momentous  fact.  The 
value  of  all  the  propert}^  real  and  personal,  including 
slaves,  in  seven  slave  States,  Virginia,  North  Caiolina, 
Tennessee,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Florida  and  Texas,  is  less 


FREE    AND   THE    SI^WE    STATES.  03 

tlian  tlie  real  and  personal  estate,  which  is  rnquestionable 
property,  in  the  single  State  of  Xcw-York  Nay,  worse; 
if  eight  entire  slave  States,  Arkansas,  Delaware,  Florida, 
Maryland,  Missouri,  Mississippi,  Tennessee  and  Texas,  and 
the  District  of  Columbia — witli  all  their  hordes  of  human 
merchandize — were  put  up  at  auction.  New- York  could 
buy  tlieni  all,  and  then  have  one  hundred  and  thirty-three 
millions  of  dollars  left  in  her  pocket  I  Such  is  the  amaz- 
ing contrast  between  freedom  and  slavery,  even  in  a  pe- 
cuniary point  of  view.  AVhen  we  come  to  compare  the 
North  with  the  South  in  regard  to  literature,  general  in- 
telligence, inventive  genius,  moral  and  religious  enterprises, 
the  discoveries  in  medicine,  and  the  progress  in  the  arts 
and  sciences,  we  shall,  in  every  instance,  find  the  con- 
trast equally  great  on  the  side  of  Liberty. 

It  gives  us  no  pleasure  to  say  hard  things  of  the  Old 
Dominion,  the  mother  of  Washington,  Jeflerson,  Henry, 
and  other  illustrious  patriots,  who,  as  we  shall  prove  here- 
after, were  genuine  abolitionists  ;  but  the  policy  which  slie 
has  pursued  has  been  so  utterly  inexcusable,  so  unjust  to 
the  non-slaveholding  whites,  so  cruel  to  the  negroes,  and 
so  disregardful  of  the  rights  of  humanity  at  large,  that  it 
becomes  the  duty  of  every  one  who  makes  allusion  to  her 
history,  to  expose  her  follies,  her  crimes,  and  her  poverty, 
and  to  publish  every  fact,  of  whatever  nature,  tbat  would 
be  instrumental  in  determining  others  to  eschew  her  bad 
example.  She  has  wilfully  departed  from  the  faith  of  the 
founders  of  this  Republic.  She  has  not  only  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  the  :ounsel  of  wise  men  from  other  States  in  the 
Union,  but  slie  has,  in  like  manner,  ignored  tin*  teachings 


94  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

of  the  great  warriors  and  statesmen  who  have  sprur-^  from 
her  own  soil.  In  a  subsequent  chapter,  we  expect  to  show 
that  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  distinguished  Virginians,  whose 
bodies  have  been  consigned  to  the  grave,  but  whose  names 
have  been  given  to  history,  and  whose  memoirs  have  a 
place  in  the  hearts  of  their  countrymen,  were  the  friends 
and  advocates  of  universal  freedom — that  they  were  inflex- 
ibly opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Territories, 
devised  measures  for  its  restriction,  and,  with  hopeful 
anxiety,  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  it  should  be 
eradicated  from  the  States  themselves.  With  them,  the 
rescue  of  our  country  from  British  domination,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  General  Government  upon  a  firm  basis, 
were  considerations  of  paramount  importance  ;  they  sup- 
posed, and  no  doubt  earnestly  desired,  that  the  States,  in 
their  sovereign  capacities,  would  soon  abolish  an  institu- 
tion which  was  so  palpably  in  conflict  with  the  principles 
enunciated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Indeed,  it 
would  seem  that,  among  the  framers  of  that  immortal 
instrument  and  its  equally  immortal  sequel,  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  there  was  a  tacit  understanding 
to  this  efiect ;  and  the  Northern  States,  true  to  their 
implied  faith,  abolished  it  within  a  short  period  after  our 
national  independence  had  been  secured.  Not  so  with  the 
South.  She  has  pertinaciously  refused  to  perform  her  duty. 
She  has  apostatized  from  the  faith  of  her  greatest  men,  and 
even  at  this  very  moment  repudiates  the  sacred  principle 
that  "  all  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
unalienable  rights,"  among  which  "  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pui-suit  of  1  ippiness."     It  is  evident,  therefore,  that 


FREE    AND    THE    SIJIVE    SPATES.  95 

the  free  States  arc  the  only  members  of  this  confe  leracy 
tliut  have  cstiiblishcd  republican  forms  of  government 
based  upon  the  theories  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison, 
llenry,  and  other  eminent  statesmen  of  Virginia. 

The  great  revolutionary  movement  which  was  set  on  foot 
in  Charlotte,  Mecklenburg  county,  North  Carolina,  on  the 
20th  day  of  May,  1T75,  has  not  yet  been  terminated,  nor 
will  it  be,  until  every  slave  in  the  United  States  is  freed 
from  the  tyranny  of  his  master.  Every  victim  of  the  vile 
institution,  whether  white  or  black,  must  be  reinvested 
with  the  sacred  rights  and  privileges  of  which  he  has  been 
deprived  by  an  inhuman  oligarchy.  What  our  noble  sires 
of  the  revolution  left  imfinished  it  is  our  duty  to  complete. 
They  did  all  that  true  valor  and  patriotism  could  accom- 
plish. Not  one  iota  did  they  swerve  from  their  plighted 
faith  ;  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  which  they  evinced  w^ill 
command  the  applause  of  every  succeeding  age.  Xot  in 
vindication  of  their  own  personal  rights  merely,  but  of  the 
rights  of  humanity  ;  not  for  their  own  generation  and  age 
simply,  but  for  all  ages  to  the  end  of  time,  they  gave  their 
toil,  their  treasure  and  their  blood,  nor  deemed  them  all 
too  great  a  price  to  pay  for  the  establishment  of  so  com- 
prehensive and  beneficent  a  principle.  Let  their  posterity 
emulate  their  courage,  their  disinterestedness,  and  their 
zeal,  and  especially  remember  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
existing  generation  so  to  provide  for  its  individual  inter- 
ests, as  to  confer  superior  advantages  on  that  which  is  to 
follow.  To  this  principle  the  North  has  adhered  with  the 
strictest  fidelity.  IIow  has  it  been  with  the  Soutli  ?  Has 
she  iiVtatcd  the  praiseworthy  example  of  our  illustrious 


96  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

ancestors  ?  No  1  She  has  treated  it  with  the  utmost 
contempt ;  she  has  been  extremely  selfish — so  selfish, 
indeed,  that  she  has  robbed  posterity  of  its  natural  rights. 
From  the  period  of  the  formation  of  the  government  down 
to  the  present  moment,  her  policy  has  been  downright  sui- 
cidal, and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  wholly  indefensible.  She 
has  hugged  a  viper  to  her  breast  ;  her  whole  system  has 
been  paralyzed,  her  conscience  is  seared,  and  she  is 
becoming  callous  to  every  principle  of  justice  and  magnar 
nimity.  Except  among  the  non-slaveholders,  who,  besides 
oeing  kept  in  the  grossest  ignorance,  are  under  the 
restraint  of  all  manner  of  iniquitous  laws,  patriotism  has 
ceased  to  exist  within  her  borders.  And  liere  we  desire 
to  be  distinctly  understood,  for  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
refer  to  this  matter  again.  We  repeat,  therefore,  the  sub- 
stance of  our  averment,  that,  at  this  day,  there  is  not  a 
grain  of  patriotism  in  the  South,  except  among  the  non- 
slaveholders.  Subsequent  pages  shall  testify  to  the  truth 
of  this  assertion.  Here  and  there,  it  is  true,  a  slaveholder, 
disgusted  with  the  institution,  becomes  ashamed  of  him- 
self, emancipates  his  negroes,  and  enters  upon  the  walks 
of  honorable  life  ;  but  these  cases  are  exceedingly  rare,  and 
do  not,  in  any  manner,  disprove  the  general  correctness  of 
our  remark.  All  persons  who  do  voluntarily  manumit 
their  slaves,  as  mentioned  above,  are  undeniably  actuated 
by 'principles  of  pure  patriotism,  justice  and  humanity  ; 
and  so  believing,  we  delight  to  do  thorn  honor. 

Once  more  to  the  Old  Dominion.  At  her  door  we  lay 
the  bulk  of  the  evils  of  slavery.  The  first  African  sold  in 
America  was  sold  on  James  River,  in  that  State,  on  the 


FREE    AND    THE    SlJiXE    STATES.  9T 

20t]i  of  Aig-iist,  1G20  ;  and  although  the  institution  was 
fastened  upon  her  and  the  other  colonies  by  the  mother 
country,  she  was  tlic  first  to  perceive  its  blighting  and 
degrading  influences,  her  wise  men  were  the  first  to  de- 
nounce it,  and,  after  the  British  power  was  overthrown  at 
York  Town,  she  should  have  been  the  first  to  abolish  it. 
Fifty-seven  years  ago  she  was  the  Empire  State  ;  now, 
with  half  a  dozen  other  slaveholding  states  thrown  into 
the  scale  with  her,  she  is  far  inferior  to  New- York,  which, 
at  the  time  Comwallis  surrendered  his  sword  to  Washing- 
ton, was  less  than  half  her  equal.  Had  she  obeyed  the 
counsels  of  the  good,  the  great  and  the  wise  men  of  our 
lation — especiall}^  of  her  own  incomparable  sons,  the  ex- 
tendible element  of  slavery  would  have  been  promptly 
arrested,  and  the  virgin  soil  of  nine  Southern  States,  Ken- 
^uckj',  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Mis- 
souri, Arkansas,  Florida,  and  Texas,  would  have  been 
saved  from  its  horrid  pollutions.  Confined  to  the  original 
states  in  which  it  existed,  the  institution  would  soon  have 
been  disposed  of  by  legislative  enactments,  and  long  be- 
fore the  present  day,  by  a  gradual  process  that  could  have 
shocked  no  interest  and  alarmed  no  prejudice,  we  should 
liave  rid  ourselves  not  only  of  African  slavery,  which  is 
an  abomination  and  a  curse,  but  also  of  the  negroes  them- 
selvcs,'who,  in  our  judgment,  whether  viewed  in  relation 
to  their  actual  characteristics  and  condition,  or  tlirough 
the  strong  antipathies  of  tlic  wliitcs,  are,  to  say  the  least, 
an  undesirable  population. 

This,  then,  is  the  ground  of  our  expostulation  with  Vir- 
ginia :    that,   in   stubborn    disregard  of  the   advice    and 


98  C0MPAKI30X    B-ITEEX   THE 

friendly  warning's  of  "Washington,  Jefferson,  Malison, 
Henry,  and  a  host  of  other  distinguished  patriots  who 
sprang  from  her  soil  —  patriots  whose  voices  shall  bo 
heard  before  we  finish  our  task — and  in  utter  violation 
of  every  principle  of  justice  and  humanity,  she  still  persists 
in  fostering  an  institution  which  is  so  manifestly  detri- 
mental to  her  vital  interests.  Every  Virginian,  whether 
living  or  dead,  whose  name  is  an  honor  to  his  country,  has 
placed  on  record  his  abhorrence  of  slaver^^  and  in  doing 
so,  has  borne  testimony  to  the  blight  and  degradation  that 
everywhere  follow  in  its  course.  One  of  the  best  aboli- 
tion speeches  we  have  ever  read  was  delivered  in  the  Vir- 
ginia House  of  Delegates,  January  20th,  1832,  by  Charles 
James  Faulkner,  who  still  lives,  and  who  has,  we  under- 
stand, generously  emancipated  several  of  his  slaves,  and 
sent  them  to  Liberia.  Here  follows  an  extract  from  his 
speech  ;  let  Southern  politicians  read  it  attentively,  and 
imbibe  a  moiety  of  the  spirit  of  patriotism  wliich  it 
breathes  : — 

"  Sir,  I  am  gratified  to  perceive  that  no  gentleman  has 
yet  risen  in  this  Hall,  the  avowed  advocate  of  slavery. 
The  day  has  gone  hy  when  such  a  voice  could  he  listened  to  icith 
'patience,  or  even  icith  forbearance.  I  even  regret.  Sir,  that 
wo  should  find  those  amongst  us  who  enter  the  lists  of 
discussion  as  its  apologists,  except  alone  upon  the  ^ound 
of  uncontrollable  necessity.  And  yet,  who  could  have 
listened  to  the  very  eloquent  remarks  of  the  gentleman 
from  Brunswick,  without  being  forced  to  conclude;  that  he 
at  least  considered  slavery,  however  not  to  be  defended  upon 
frhmple,  yet  as  being  divested  of  much  of  its  enormity,  as 
you  approa-^h  it  in  practice. 


tHEK    AND  Tin:    SLAVE    STA'KS.  9'J 

"  Sir,  if  there  be  one  who  concurs  with  that  gOLtlenian 
in  the  harmless  character  of  this  institution,  let  me  re- 
quest him  to  comi)are  the  condition  of  the  slaveholdin<^ 
portion  of  this  connnonwcalth — barren,  desolate,  and  seared 
as  it  iccrt  by  the  avenging  hand  of  Heaven — with  the  descrip- 
tions which  wo  liave  of  this  country  from  those  who  first 
broke  its  virgin  soil.  To  what  is  this  change  ascribable  ? 
Alone  to  the  withering  and  blasting  effects  of  slavery.  If  this 
docs  not  satisfy  him,  let  me  request  him  to  extend  his 
travels  to  the  Northern  States  of  this  Union,  and  beg  him 
to  contrast  the  happiness  and  contentment  which  prevail 
throughout  that  country',  the  busy  and  cheerful  sound  of 
industry,  the  rapid  and  swelling  growth  of  their  popula- 
tion, their  means  and  institutions  of  education,  their  skill 
and  proficiency  in  the  useful  arts,  their  enterprise  and 
public  spirit,  the  monuments  of  tlicir  commercial  and  man- 
ufacturing industry  ;  and,  alxn^e  all,  tlieir  devoted  at- 
tachment to  the  government  from  wliicli  they  derive  their 
protection,  with  the  derision,  discontent,  indolence,  and  poverty 
of  the  Southern  country.  To  what,  Sir,  is  all  this  ascrib- 
able ?  To  that  vice  in  the  organization  of  society,  by  which  one- 
half  of  its  inhabitants  are  arrayeA  in  interest  and  feeling  against 
the  other  half — to  that  unfortunate  state  of  society  in  which 
freemen  regard  labor  as  disgraceful,  and  slaves  shrink 
fnjm  it  as  a  burden  tyrannically  imposed  upon  them — to 
that  condition  of  things  in  which  half  a  million  of  your 
population  can  feel  no  s^'mpathy  with  the  society  in  the 
prosperity  of  which  they  arc  forbidden  to  participate,  and 
no  attachment  to  a  government  at  whose  hands  they  re- 
ceive nothing  but  injustice. 


100 


COMPARISON    BETWi:EX   THE 


"If  this  sIiouIl  uot  be  sufficient,  and  the  curious  and 
incredulous  inquirer  should  suggest  that  the  contrast 
which  has  been  adverted  to,  and  which  is  so  manifest, 
might  be  traced  to  a  difference  of  climate,  or  other  causes 
distinct  from  slavery  itself,  permit  me  to  refer  him  to  the 
two  States  of  Kentucky  and  Ohio.  No  difference  of  soil, 
no  diversity  of  climate,  no  diversity  in  the  original  set- 
tlement of  those  two  States,  can  account  for  the  remark- 
able disproportion  in  their  natural  advancement.  Sepa- 
rated by  a  river  alone,  they  seem  to  have  been  purposely  and 
providentially  designed  to  exhibit  in  their  future  histories  the  dif- 
ference ichich  necessarily  results  from  a  country  free  from,  and  a 
country  afflicted  with,  the  curse  of  slavery. 

"  Vain  and  idle  is  every  effort  to  strangle  this  inquiry. 
As  well  might  you  attempt  to  chain  the  ocean,  or  stay  the 
avenging  thunderbolts  of  Heaven,  as  to  drive  the  people 
from  any  inquir^^  which  may  result  in  their  better  condi- 
tion. This  is  too  deep,  too  engrossing  a  subject  of  consid- 
eration. It  addresses  itself  too  strongly  to  our  interests, 
to  our  passions,  and  to  our  feelings.  I  shall  advocate  no 
scheme  that  does  not  respect  the  right  of  property,  so  far 
as  it  is  entitled  to  be  respected,  with  a  just  regard  to  the  safety 
and  resources  of  the  State.  I  would  approach  the  subject 
as  one  of  great  magnitude  and  delicacy,  as  one  whose  va 
ried  and  momentous  consequences  demand  the  calmest  and 
most  deliberate  investigation.  But  still,  Sir,  I  would  ap- 
proach it — aye,  delicate  as  it  may  be,  encompassed  as  it 
may  be  with  difficulties  and  hazards,  I  would  still  approach 
it.  Tlie  people  demand  it.  Their  security  requires  it. 
In  the  language  of  the  wise  and  prophetic  Jefferson,  '  You 


FRKB    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES.  101 

mus    approach   it — you    must   bciir  it — you   ii  ast  adopt 
some  i)lan  of  enuuicipution,  or  worse  will  follow.'" 

Mr  Curtis,  iu  a  speech  iu  the  Vir^iuia  Legislature  in 
1S32,  said: 

"  There  is  a  malaria  in  the  atmosphere  of  these  regions, 
wliich  the  new  comer  shuns,  as  being  deleterious  to  his 
views  and  habits.  Sec  the  wide-spreading  ruin  which  the 
avarice  of  our  ancestral  government  has  produced  in  the 
South,  as  witnessed  in  a  sparse  population  of  freemen, 
deserted  habitations,  and  fields  without  culture  I  Strange 
to  tell,  even  the  wolf,  driven  back  long  since  by  the  ap- 
proach of  man,  now  returns,  after  the  lapse  of  a  hundred 
years,  to  howl  over  the  desolations  of  slavery." 

Mr.  Moore,  also  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia, 
in  speaking  of  the  evils  of  slavery,  said  : 

"  The  first  I  shall  mention  is  the  irresistible  tendency 
which  it  has  to  undermine  and  destroy  everything  like  vir- 
tue and  morality  in  the  community.  If  we  look  back 
through  the  long  course  of  time  which  has  elapsed  since 
the  creation  to  the  present  moment,  we  shall  scarcely  bo 
able  to  point  out  a  people  whose  situation  was  not,  in 
many  respects,  preferable  to  our  own,  and  that  of  the  other 
States,  in  which  negro  slavery  exists. 

"  In  that  part  of  the  State  below  tide-water,  the  whole 
face  of  the  country  wears  an  appearance  of  almost  utter 
desolation,  distressing  to  the  beholder.  The  very  spot 
on  which  our  ancestors  landed,  a  little  more  than  twc 
hundred  years  ago,  appears  to  be  on  the  eve  of  again  bf*- 
coming  the  haunt  of  wild  beasts." 
Mr.  Rives,  of  Cami)bell  county  said  : 


iv/2  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   THE 

"  On  the  niiltiplied  and  desolating  evils  of  slavery,  he 
was  not  disposed  to  say  much.  The  curse  and  deteriora- 
ting consequence  were  within  the  observation  and  expe- 
rience of  the  members  of  the  House  and  the  people  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  it  did  not  seem  to  him  that  there  could  be  two 
opinions  about  it." 

Mr.  Powell  said  : 

"  I  can  scarcely  persuade  myself  that  there  is  a  solitary 
gentleman  in  this  House  who  will  not  readily  admit  that 
slavery  is  an  evil,  and  that  its  removal,  if  practicable,  is 
a  consummation  most  devoutly  to  be  wished.  I  have  not 
heard,  nor  do  I  expect  to  hear,  a  voice  raised  in  this  Hall 
to  the  contrary." 

In  the  language  of  another,  "  we  might  multiply  ex- 
tracts almost  indefinitely  from  Virginia  authorities  —  tes- 
tifying to  the  blight  and  degradation  tiiat  have  overtaken 
the  Old  Dominion,  in  every  department  of  her  affairs. 
Her  commerce  gone,  her  agriculture  decaying,  her  land 
falling  in  value,  her  mining  and  manufactures  nothing, 
her  schools  dying  out, —  she  presents,  according  to  the 
testimony  of  her  own  sons,  the  saddest  of  all  pictures  — 
that  of  a  sinking  and  dying  State."  Every  year  leaves 
her  in  a  worse  condition  than  it  found  her  ;  and  as  it  is 
with  Virginia,  so  it  is  with  the  entire  South.  In  the  terse 
language  of  Governor  Wise,  "  all  have  grown  poor  to- 
gether." The  black  god  cf  slavery,  which  the  South  has 
worshipped  for  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years,  is  but 
a  devil  in  disguise  ;  and  if  we  would  save  ourselves  from 
being  engulphed  in  utter  ruin  we  must  repudiate  this  foul 
god,  for  a  purer  de'ty,  and  abandon  his  altars  for  a  holier 


FREE    AND    THE    SI-UE    STATES.  103 

sLrinc.  No  time  is  to  be  lost  ;  his  fanatical  adorers,  tho 
despotic  adversaries  of  buinan  liberty,  arc  concoctiDg 
Bchemes  for  the  enslavement  of  all  the  laboring  classes' 
irrespective  of  race  or  color.  The  issue  is  before  us  ;  wo 
cannot  evade  it  ;  vrc  must  meet  it  with  firmness,  and  with 
unflinching  valor. 

What  it  was  that  parah^zed  the  tongues  of  all  those 
members  of  the  Virgina  Legislature,  who,  at  the  session 
of  1831-32,  distinguished  themselves  by  advocating  a 
system  of  emancipation,  is  a  mystery  that  has  never  yet 
been  solved.  Whether  any  oi  all  of  them  shared  a  divi- 
sion of  spoils  with  a  certain  newspaper  editor,  we 
have  no  means  of  knowing  ;  but  if  all  accounts  be  true, 
there  was  consummated  in  Richmond,  in  tlie  latter  part 
of  the  year  1832,  one  of  the  blackest  schemes  of  bribery 
and  corruption  that  was  ever  perpetrated  in  this  or  any 
other  country.  AVe  arc  assured,  however,  that  one  thing 
is  certain,  and  it  is  this  :  that  the  negro  population  of 
Virginia  was  very  considerably  and  suddenly  decreased 
by  forcible  emigration — that  a  large  gang  was  driven 
further  South,  sold,  and  the  proceeds  divided  among  cer- 
tain renegades  and  traitors,  who,  Judas-like,  had  agreed 
to  serve  the  devil  for  a  price. 

We  would  fain  avoid  all  personalities  and  uncompli- 
mentary allusions  to  the  dead,  but  when  men,  from  love 
of  lucre,  from  mere  selfish  motives,  or  from  sheer  turpi- 
tude of  heart,  inflict  great  injuries  and  outrages  on  the 
public,  their  villainy  ought  to  be  exposed,  so  that  others 
may  be  deterred  from  foil  Dwing  in  their  footsteps.  As  a 
general  rule,  man's  moral  nature  is,  we  believe,  so  strong 


104  COMPARISON    B£rWELX    THE 

that  it  invariaLly  prompts  him  to  eschew  vice  and  prac- 
tice virtue — in  other  words,  to  do  right  ;  but  this  rule, 
like  all  others,  has  its  exceptions,  as  might  be  most  strik- 
ingly illustrated  in  the  character  of ,  and 

some  half-dozen  or  more  of  his  pro-slavery  coadjutors. 
From  whose  hands  did  this  man  receive  fifty  thousand 
hillars — improperly,  if  not  illegally,  taken  from  the 
public  funds  in  Washington  ?  When  did  he  receive  it  ? — 
and  for  what  purpose  ? — and  who  was  the  arch-dema- 
gogue through  whose  agency  the  transfer  was  made  ? 
He  was  an  oligarchical  member  of  the  Cabinet  under  Mr. 
Polk's  administration  in  1845,  —  and  the  money  was 
used,  —  and  who  can  doubt  intended  1 — for  the  express 
purpose  of  establishing  another  negro-driving  journal  to 
support  the  tottering  fortunes  of  slavery.  From  the 
second  volume  of  a  valuable  political  work,  "  by  a  Sena- 
tor of  thirty  years,"  we  make  the  following  pertinent 
extract : — 

"  The  Glohe  was  sold,  and  was  paid  for,  and  how  ?  bo- 
comes  a  question  of  public  concern  to  answer  ;  for  it  was 
paid  for  out  of  public  money — those  same  $50,000  which 
were  removed  to  the  village  bank  in  the  interior  of  Penn- 
sylvania by  a  Treasury  order  on  the  fourth  of  November, 
1844.  Three  annual  installments  made  the  payment,  and 
the  Treasury  did  not  reclaim  the  money  for  these  three 
years  ;  and,  though  traveling  through  tortuous  channels, 
the  sharpsighted  Mr.  Rives  traced  the  money  back  to  its 
starting  point  from  that  deposit.  Besides,  Mr.  Cameron, 
who  had  control  of  the  village  lank,  admitted  before  a 
committee  of  Congress,  that  he  had  furnished  money  for 


FREE    ANJ   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  105 

the  pa3'mcnts--an  admission  ^vllicll  tlio  obIi<^ing'  Commit- 
tee, ou  rc(iuest,  left  out  of  their  report.  Mr.  Kobert  J. 
Walker  was  Secreta  y  of  the  Treasury  during  these  three 
years,  and  the  conviction  was  absolute,  among  the  close 
observers  of  the  course  of  things,  that  he  was  the  prime 
contriver  and  zealous  manager  of  the  arrangements  which 
displaced  Mr.  Blair  and  installed  Mr.  Ritchie." 

Thus,  if  we  are  to  believe  Mr.  Bcntop,  in  his  "  Thirty 
fear's  View,"  and  we  are  disposed  to  regard  him  as  good 
luthority,  tin;  Washington  Union  was  brought  into  exis- 
tence under  the  peculiar  auspices  of  the  ostensible  editor 
of  the  Richmond  Enquirer  ;  and  the  two  papers,  fathered 
by  the  same  individual,  have  gone  hand  in  hand  for  tlir^ 
last  dozen  or  thirteen  years,  the  shameless  advocates  and 
defenders  of  human  bondage.  To  suppose  that  either  has 
been  sustained  by  fairer  means  than  it  was  commenced 
with,  would  be  wasting  imagination  on  a  great  improba- 
bility. Both  have  uniformly  and  pcrtinacicusly  opposed 
every  laudable  enterprise  that  the  white  non-slaveholder 
has  projected  ;  indeed,  so  unmitigated  has  been  their  hos- 
tility to  all  manual  pursuits  in  which  iheir  stupid  and  vul- 
gar slaves  can  not  be  employed  to  advantage — and  if 
there  is  any  occupation  under  the  sun  in  which  they  can  be 
employed  to  good  advantage,  we  known  not  what  it  is  — 
that  it'is  an  extremely  diflicult  matter  to  find  a  respecta- 
ble merchant,  mechanic,  manufacturer,  or  business  man 
of  any  calling  whatever,  within  the  bounds  of  their  circu 
lation. 

We  have  been  credibly  inf(jrmed  by  a  gentleman  from 
Powhaltan  <  ounty.  in  Virginia,  that  in  the  year  1836  or 


IOC  COiirARISON    BETWEEN    .HE 

'3T,  or  about  that  time,  the  lion.  Abbott  Lawrence,  of  Bos- 
ton, backed  by  his  brother  Amos  and  other  millionaires  of 
New  England,  went  down  to  Richmond  with  the  sole  view 
of  reconnoitering  the  manufacturing  facilities  of  that  place 
— fully  determined,  if  pleased  with  the  water-power,  to 
erect  a  large  number  of  cotton-mills  and  machine-shops. 
He  had  been  in  the  capital  of  Virginia  only  a  day  or  two 
before  he  discovered,  much  to  his  gratification,  that  nature 
had  shaped  everything  to  his  liking  ;  and  as  he  was  a 
business  man  who  transacted  business  in  a  business-like 
manner,  he  lost  no  time  in  making  preliminary  arrange- 
ments for  the  consummation  of  his  noble  purpose.  His 
mission  was  one  of  peace  and  promise  ;  others  were  to 
share  the  benefits  of  his  laudable  and  concerted  scheme  ; 
thousands  of  poor  boys  and  girls  in  Virginia,  instead  of 
growing  up  in  extreme  poverty  and  ignorance,  or  of  having 
to  emigrate  to  the  free  States  of  the  West,  were  to  have 
avenues  of  profitable  employment  opened  to  them  at  home  ; 
thus  they  would  be  enabled  to  earn  an  honest  and  reputa- 
ble living,  to  establish  and  sustain  free  schools,  free  libra- 
ries, free  lectures,  and  free  presses,  to  become  useful  and 
exemplary  members  of  society,  and  to  die  fit  candidates 
for  heaven.  The  magnanimous  New  Englander  was  in 
ecstasies  with  the  prospect  that  opened  before  him.  Indi- 
vidually, so  far  as  mere  money  was  concerned,  he  was  per- 
fectly independent ;  his  industry  and  econ'  my  in  early 
life  had  secured  to  him  the  ownership  and  oontrol  of  an 
ample  fortune.  With  the  aid  of  eleven  other  men,  each 
equal  to  himself,  he  could  have  bought  the  whole  city  of 
Kichmo!.  i — negroes  and  all — though  it  is  not  to  be  pre- 


'•REE    AND    TilE    SLAVE    STATES.  107 

tyjmcd  that  ho  would  have  disgraced  his  name  by  becoming 
a  trader  in  human  llesh.  But  ho  was  not  selfish  ;  unlike 
the  arrogant  and  illiberal  slaveholder,  he  did  not  regard 
li in. self  as  the  centre  around  whom  everybody  else  should 
revolve.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  a  genuine  philanthropist. 
While,  with  a  shrewdness  that  will  command  the  admira- 
tion of  ever}'  practical  business  man,  he  engaged  in  nothing 
that  did  not  swell  the  dimensions  of  his  own  purse,  he  was 
yet  always  solicitous  to  invest  his  capital  in  a  manner  cal- 
culated to  promote  the  interest  of  those  around  him.  Nor 
was  he  satisfied  with  simply  furnishing  the  means  whereby 
his  less  fortunate  neighbors  were  to  become  prosperous, 
intelligent  and  contented.  "With  his  generous  heart  and 
sagacious  mind,  he  delighted  to  aid  them  in  making  a 
judicious  application  of  his  wealth  to  their  own  use. 
Moreover,  as  a  member  of  society,  he  felt  that  the  commu- 
nity had  some  reasonable  claims  upon  him,  and  he  made 
it  obligatory  on  himself  constantly  to  devise  plans  and 
exert  his  personal  efforts  for  the  public  good.  Such  was 
tlie  character  of  the  distinguished  manufacturer  who  hon- 
ored Richmond  with  his  presence  nineteen  or  twenty  years 
ago  ;  such  was  the  character  of  the  men  whom  he  repre- 
sented, and  such  were  the  grand  designs  which  they 
sought  to  accomplish. 

To  the  enterprising  and  moneyed  descendant  of  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers  it  was  a  matter  of  no  little  astonishment, 
that  the  immense  water-power  of  Richmond  had  been  so  • 
long  ncglcctc  i.  He  expressed  his  surprise  to  a  number 
of  VirginiauF^  and  was  at  a  loss  to  know  why  they  had 
not,  long  prior  to  the  pveriod  of  his  visit  amongst   them. 


108  COMPARISON   BETWEEN   TSE 

availed  themselves  of  the  powerful  elemen  k  th  tt  is  eter- 
nally gnashing  and  foaming  over  the  falls  of  James  River. 
Innocent  man  I  He  was  utterly  unconscious  of  the  fact 
that  he  was  "  interfering  with  the  beloved  institutions  of 
the  South,"  and  little  was  he  prepared  to  withstand  the 
terrible  denunciations  that  were  immediately  showered  on 
his  head  through  the  columns  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer. 
Few  words  will  suffice  to  tell  the  sequel.  That  negro- 
worshipping  sheet,  whose  hireling  policy,  for  the  last  four 
and  twenty  years,  has  been  to  support  the  worthless  black 
slave  and  his  tyrannical  master  at  the  expense  of  the  free 
white  laborer,  wrote  down  the  enterprise  !  and  the  noble 
son  of  New  England,  abused,  insulted  and  disgusted, 
quietly  returned  to  Massachusetts,  and  there  employed 
his  capital  in  building  up  the  cities  of  Lowell  and  Law- 
rence, either  of  which,  in  all  those  elements  of  material 
and  social  prosperity  that  make  up  the  greatness  of  States, 
is  already  far  in  advance  of  the  most  important  of  all  the 
seedy  and  squalid  niggervilles  in  the  Old  Dominion.  Such 
is  an  inkling  of  the  infamous  means  that  have  been  resort- 
ed to,  from  time  to  time,  for  the  purpose  of  upholding  and 
perpetuating  in  America  the  accursed  institution  of 
slavery. 

Having  in  view  all  the  foregoing  facts,  we  were  not  in 
the  least  surprised  when,  while  walking  through  Holly- 
wood Cemetery,  in  the  western  suburbs  c  f  Richmond,  not 
long  since,  our  companion,  a  Virginian  of  the  true  school, 
directed  our  attention  to  a  monument  of  some  pretentions, 
and  exclaimed,  "  There  lie  the  remains  of  a  man  upon 
whose  monument  should  be  inscribed  in  everlasting  prom- 


FREE    AND    THE    SLAVE    S/A'  ES.  109 

iiicnce  the  finger  of  scorn  pointing  downward."  The  reader 
scarcely  needs  to  be  told  that  we  were  standing  at  the 

tomb  of ,  who  in  the  opinion  of  our  friend, 

had,  by  concentrating  within  himself  the  views  and  pur- 
poses of  all  the  evil  spirits  in  Virginia,  greatly  retarded 
the  abolition  of  slavery  ;  so  greatly,  indeed,  as,  thereby, 
to  throw  the  State  at  least  fifty  years  behind  her  free 
competitors  of  the  North,  of  the  East,  and  of  the  West 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Virginia  may  never  give  birth  to 
another  man  whose  evil  influence  will  so  justly  entitle  him 
to  the  reprobation  of  posterity. 

How  any  rational  man  in  this  or  any  other  country, 
with  tlic  astounding  contrasts  betw^een  Freedom  and  Sla- 
very ever  looming  in  his  view,  can  offer  an  apology  for 
the  existing  statism  of  the  South,  is  to  us  a  most  inexpli- 
cable mystery.  Indeed,  we  cannot  conceive  it  possible 
that  the  conscience  of  any  man,  w^ho  is  really  sane,  would 
permit  him  to  become  the  victim  of  such  an  egregious 
and  diabolical  absurdity.  Therefore,  at  this  period  of  our 
history,  with  the  light  of  tlie  past,  the  reality  of  the  pre- 
sent, and  the  prospect  of  the  future,  all  so  prominent 
and  so  palpable,  we  infer  that  every  person  who  sets  up 
an  unequivocal  defence  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  must, 
of  necessity,  be  cither  a  fool,  a  knave,  or  a  madman. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  slavocrats  look  at 
but  one  side  of  the  question.  Of  all  the  fanatics  in  the 
country,  they  have,  of  late,  become  the  most  unreasonable 
and  ridiculous.  Let  them  deliberately  view  the  subject 
of  slavery  in  all  its  aspects  and  bearings,  and  if  they  are 
possessed  of  honest  hearts  and  couvincible   minds,  they 


110  COMPARISON    BETWEEN^   THE 

will  readily  perceive  the  grossness  of  their  past  eiTors, 
renounce  their  allegiance  to  a  cause  so  unjust  and  dis- 
graceful, and  at  once  enroll  themselves  among  the  hosts 
of  Freedom  and  the  friends  of  universal  Liberty.  There 
are  thirty-one  States  in  the  Union  ;  let  them  drop  Califor- 
nia, or  any  other  new  free  State,  and  then  institute  fifteen 
comparisons,  first  comparing  New-York  with  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania  w4th  Carolina,  Massachusetts  with  Georgia, 
and  so  on,  until  they  have  exhausted  the  catalogue. 
Then,  for  once,  let  them  be  bold  enough  to  listen  to  the 
admonitions  of  their  own  souls,  and  if  they  do  not  soon 
start  to  their  feet  demanding  the  abolition  of  slavery,  it 
will  only  be  because  they  have  reasons  for  suppressing 
their  inmost  sentiments.  Whether  we  compare  the  old 
free  States  with  the  old  slave  States,  or  the  new  free 
States  with  the  new  slave  States,  the  difference,  unmis- 
takable and  astounding,  is  substantially  the  same.  All 
the  free  States  are  alike,  and  all  the  slave  States  are  alike. 
In  the  former,  wealth,  intelligence,  power,  progress,  and 
prosperity,  are  the  prominent  characteristics  ;  in  the  latter, 
poverty,  ignorance,  embecility,  inertia,  and  extravagance, 
are  the  distinguishing  features.  To  be  convinced,  it  is 
only  necessary  for  us  to  open  our  eyes  and  look  at  facts 
— to  examine  the  statistics  of  the  country,  to  free  ourselves 
from  obstinacy  and  prejudice,  and  to  unbar  our  minds  to 
convictions  of  truth.  Let  figures  be  the  umpire.  Close 
attention  to  th?  preceding  and  subsequent  tables  is  all  we 
ask  ;  so  soon  as  they  shall  be  duly  considered  and  under- 
stood, the  primary  object  of  this  work  will  have  been 
accomplished. 


FUKE    AND   THK    SLAVE    ST.     ES,  IK 

Not  coiiteiu  ^viUl  eating*  out  the  vitals  of  the  South, 
shivery,  true  to  tlie  eharacter  which  it  has  acquired  for 
insatiety  and  rapine,  is  beg'iuning  to  make  rapid  encroacli- 
ments  on  new  territory  ;  and  as  a  basis  for  a  few  remarks 
on  the  blasting  influence  which  it  is  shedding  over  tlie 
broad  and  fertile  domains  of  the  West,  which  in  accord- 
ance with  the  views  and  resolutions  offered  by  the  immor- 
tal Jeflerson,  should  have  been  irrevocably  dedicated  to 
freedom,  we  beg  leave  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader 
to  another  presentation  of  the  philosophy  of  free  and  slave 
labor.     Says  the  North  American  and  United  States  Gazette  : 

"  We  have  but  to  compare  the  States,  possessing  equal 
natural  advantages,  in  which  the  two  kinds  of  labor  are  em- 
ployed, in  order  to  decide  with  entire  confidence  as  to  which 
kind  is  the  more  profitable.  At  the  origin  cf  the  govern- 
ment, Virginia,  with  a  much  larger  extent  of  territory  than 
New-York,  contained  a  population  of  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand,  and  sent  ten  representatives  to  Congress  ; 
while  New- York  contained  a  population  of  three  hundred 
and  forty  thousand,  and  sent  six  representatives  to  Con- 
gress. Behold  how  the  figures  are  reversed.  The  popu- 
lation of  New-York  is  three  and  a  half  millions,  represent- 
ed by  thirty-three  members  in  Congress  ;  wdiile  the  popu- 
lation of  Virginia  is  but  little  more  than  one  and  a  half 
millions,  represented  by  thirteen  members  in  Congress.  It 
is  the  vital  sap  of  free  labor  that  makes  the  one  tree  so 
thrifty  and  vigorous,  so  capable  of  bearing  with  all  ease 
the  fruit  of  such  a  population.  And  it  is  slave  labor  whicli 
strikes  a  decadence  through  the  other,  drying  up  many  oi 
its  branches  with  a  fearful   sterility,  and  rendering  the 


112  COMIAEISCN   BETWEEN   THE 

rest  but  scantily  fruitful  ;  really  incapable  tf  sustaining 
more.  Look  at  Ohio,  teeming  with  inhabitants,  its  soil 
loaded  with  every  kind  of  agricultural  wealth,  its  people 
engaged  in  every  kind  of  freedom's  diversified  employ- 
ments, abounding  with  numberless  happy  homes,  and  with 
all  the  trophies  of  civilization,  and  it  exhibits  the  magic 
effect  of  free  labor,  waking  a  wilderness  into  life  and 
beauty  ;  while  Kentucky,  with  equal  or  superior  natural 
advantages,  nature's  very  garden  in  this  Western  world, 
which  commenced  its  career  at  a  much  earlier  date,  and 
was  in  a  measure  populous  when  Ohio  was  but  a  slumber- 
ing forest,  but  which  in  all  the  elements  of  progress,  is 
now  left  far,  very  far,  behind  its  young  rival,  shows  how 
slave  labor  hinders  the  development  of  wealth  among  a 
people,  and  brings  a  blight  on  their  prosperity.  The  one 
is  a  grand  and  beautiful  poem  in  honor  of  free  labor.  The 
other  is  an  humble  confession  to  the  world  of  the  inferiority 
of  slave  labor." 

Equally  significant  is  the  testimony  of  Daniel  E.  Goodloe, 
of  North  Carolina,  who  says  : — 

"  The  history  of  the  United  States  shows,  that  while  the 
slave  States  increase  in  population  less  rapidly  than  the 
free,  there  is  a  tendency  in  slave  society  to  diffusion, 
greater  than  is  exhibited  by  free  society.  In  fact,  diffusion, 
or  extension  of  area,  is  one  of  the  necessities  of  slavery  ; 
the  prevention  of  which  is  regarded  as  directly  and  imme- 
diately menacing  to  the  existence  of  the  institutior^  This 
arises  from  the  almost  exclusive  application  of  slave  labor 
to  the  one  occupation  of  agriculture,  and  the  difficulty,  if 
not  impossibility,  of  diversifying  empbyments.    Free  soci- 


FREE   AND   THE    SLATI    STATES.  113 

etj,  on  the  contrary,  has  indefinite  resources  of  develop- 
ment within  a  restricted  area.  It  will  far  excel  shive 
society  in  the  cultivation  of  the  ground — first,  on  account 
of  the  superior  intelligence  of  the  laborers  ;  and  secondly, 
in  consequence  of  the  greater  and  more  various  demands 
upon  the  earth's  products,  where  commerce,  manufactures, 
and  the  arts,  abound.  Then,  these  arts  of  life,  by  bringing 
men  together  in  cities  and  towns,  and  emploj'ing  them  in 
the  manufacture  or  transportation  of  the  raw  materials  of 
the  farmer,  give  rise  to  an  indefinite  increase  of  wealth 
and  population.  The  confinement  of  a  free  people  within 
narrow  limits  seems  only  to  develop  new  resources  of 
wealth,  comfort  and  happiness  ;  while  slave  society,  pent 
up,  withers  and  dies.  It  must  continually  be  fed  by  new 
fields  and  forests,  to  be  wasted  and  wilted  under  the  pois- 
onous tread  of  the  slave." 

Were  we  simply  a  freesoilcr,  or  anything  else  less  than 
a  thorough  and  uncompromising  abolitionist,  we  should 
certainly  tax  our  ability  to  the  utmost  to  get  up  a  cogent 
argument  against  the  extension  of  slavery  over  any  part 
of  our  domain  where  it  does  not  now  exist ;  but  as  our 
principles  are  hostile  to  the  institution  even  where  it  does 
exist,  and,  therefore,  by  implication  and  in  fact,  more  hos- 
tile still  to  its  introduction  into  new  territory,  we  forbear 
the  preparation  of  any  special  remarks  on  this  particular 
subject. 

With  regard  to  the  unnational  and  demoralizing  institu- 
tion of  slavery,  we  believe  the  majority  of  Northern  people 
arc  too  scrupulous.  They  seem  to  think  that  it  is  enough 
for  them  to  be  mere  freesoilers,  to  keep  in  check  the  diffu- 


114  COMPARISON    BETWEEN'   THE 

sive  element  ( f  slavery,  and  to  prevent  it  from  crossing 
over  the  bounds  within  which  it  is  now  regulated  by  muni- 
cipal law.  Remiss  in  their  national  duties,  as  we  contend, 
they  make  no  positive  attack  upon  the  institution  in  the 
Southern  States.  Only  a  short  while  since,  one  of  their 
ablest  journals — the  JVorth  American  and  United  States  Gar 
zette,  published  in  Philadelphia — made  use  of  the  following 
language  : — 

"  With  slavery  in  the  States,  we  make  no  pretence  of 
having  anything  politically  to  do.  For  better  or  for  worse, 
the  system  belongs  solely  to  the  people  of  those  States  ; 
and  is  separated  by  an  impassable  gulf  of  State  sovereignty 
from  any  legal  intervention  of  ours.  We  cannot  vote  it 
down  any  more  than  we  can  vote  down  the  institution  of 
caste  in  Hindostan,  or  abolish  polygamy  in  the  Sultan's 
dominions.  Thus,  precluded  from  all  political  action  in 
reference  to  it,  prevented  from  touching  one  stone  of  the 
edifice,  not  the  slightest  responsibility  attaches  to  us  aa 
citizens  for  its  continued  existence.  But  on  the  question  of 
extending  slavery  over  the  free  Territories  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  our  right,  it  is  our  imperative  duty  to  think, 
to  feel,  to  speak  and  to  vote.  We  cannot  interfere  to  cover 
the  shadows  of  slavery  with  the  sunshine  of  freedom,  but 
we  can  interfere  to  prevent  the  sunshine  of  freedom  from 
being  eclipsed  by  the  shadows  of  slavery.  We  can  inter- 
pose to  stay  the  progress  of  that  institution,  which  aims 
to  drive  free  labor  from  its  own  heritage.  Kansas  should 
be  divided  up  into  countless  homes  for  the  ownership  of 
men  who  have  a  right  to  the  fruit  of  their  own  labors 
Free  labor  would  make  it  bud  and  blossom  like  the  rose  ; 


I  REE    AND    THE    SL^TE    STATES.  115 

would  cover  it  with  beauty,  and  draw  from  it  boundless 
wealth  ;  would  throng  it  with  population  ;  would  make 
States,  nations,  empires  out  of  it,  prosperous,  powerful, 
intelligent  and  free,  illustrating  on  a  wide  theatre  the 
beneficent  ends  of  Providence  in  the  formation  of  our  gov- 
ernment, to  advance  and  elevate  the  millions  of  our  race, 
and,  like  the  heart  in  the  body,  from  its  central  position, 
sending  out  on  every  side,  far  and  near,  the  vital  influences 
of  freedom  and  civilization.  May  that  region,  therefore, 
be  secured  to  free  labor." 

Now  we  fully  and  heartily  indorse  every  line  of  the  lat- 
ter part  of  this  extract  ;  but,  with  all  due  deference  to 
our  sage  cotemporary,  we  do  most  emphatically  dissent 
from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the  first  part.  Pray, 
permit  us  to  ask — have  tlie  people  of  the  North  no  inter- 
est in  the  United  States  as  a  nation,  and  do  they  not  see 
that  slavery  is  a  great  injury  and  disgrace  to  the  whole 
country  7  Did  they  not,  in  "  the  days  that  tried  men's 
souls,"  strike  as  hard  blows  to  secure  the  independence  of 
Georgia  as  they  did  in  defending  the  liberties  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  is  it  not  notoriously  true  that  the  Toryism 
of  South  Carolina  prolonged  the  war  two  years  at  least  ? 
Is  it  not,  moreover,  equally  true  that  the  oligarchs  of 
South  Carolina  have  been  unmitigated  pests  and  bores  to 
the  General  Government  ever  since  it  was  organized,  and 
that  the  free  and  conscientious  people  of  the  North  are 
virtually  excluded  from  her  soil,  in  consequence  of  slavery  ? 
It  is  a  well-known  and  incontestible  fact,  that  the  North- 
ern States  furnished  about  two-thirds  of  all  the  Ameri- 
can  troops   engaged   in   tlie   Revolutionary  "War  ;    and, 


116  COMPARISON    BETWEIN   THE 

tliougli  they  were  neither  more  nor  less  brave  or  patri 
otic  than  their  fellow-soldiers  of  the  South,  yet,  inasmuch 
as  the  independence  of  our  country  was  mainly  secured  by 
virtue  of  their  numerical  strength,  we  think  they  ought 
to  consider  it  not  only  their  right  but  their  duty  to  make 
a  firm  and  decisive  effort  to  save  the  States  which  they 
fought  to  free,  from  falling  under  the  yoke  of  a  worse  ty^ 
ranny  than  that  which  overshadowed  them  under  the  reign 
of  King  George  the  Third.  Freemen  of  the  North  I  we 
earnestly  entreat  you  to  think  of  these  things.  Hitherto, 
as  mere  freesoilcrs,  you  have  approached  but  half-way  to 
the  line  of  your  duty  ;  now,  for  your  own  sakcs  and  for 
ours,  and  for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating  this  glorious 
Kcpublic,  which  your  fathers  and  our  fathers  founded  in 
septennial  streams  of  blood,  we  ask  you,  in  all  serious- 
ness, to  organize  yourselves  as  one  man  under  the  banners 
of  Liberty,  and  to  aid  us  in  exterminating  slavery,  which  is 
the  only  thing  that  militates  against  our  complete  aggran- 
dizement as  a  nation. 

In  this  extraordinary  crisis  of  affairs,  no  man  can  be  a 
true  patriot  without  first  becoming  an  abolitionist.  (A 
freesoiler  is  only  a  tadpole  in  an  advanced  state  of  trans- 
formation ;  an  abolitionist  is  the  full  and  perfectly  devel- 
oped frog.)  And  here,  perhaps,  we  may  be  pardoned  for 
the  digression  necessary  to  show  the  exact  definition  of 
the  terms  ahdish,  alxdition  and  aholit'wnist.  We  have  looked 
in  vain  for  an  explanation  of  tlie  signification  of  these 
words  in  any  Southern  publication  ;  for  no  dictionary  has 
•)vcr  yet  been  published  in  the  South,  nor  is  there  the  least 
)robability  that  one  ever  will  be  published  within  her  bor- 


FREE    AND   THE    SI-AVE    STATES.  Ill 

dors,  until  slavery  is  ahullshed ;  but,  thanks  \o  Ileavon,  a 
portion  of  this  continent  is  what  our  Kevohitionary  Fath- 
ers and  the  Fathers  of  the  Constitution  fought  and  hibored 
and  prayed  to  make  it  —  a  huid  t)f  freedom,  of  power,  of 
progress,  of  prosperity,  of  intelligence,  of  religion,  of  liter- 
ature, of  commerce,  of  science,  of  arts,  of  agriculture,  of 
manufactures,  of  ingenuity,  of  enterprise,  of  wealth,  of 
renown,  of  goodness,  and  of  grandeur.  From  that  glori- 
ous part  of  our  confederacy — from  the  North,  whence,  on 
account  of  slavery  in  the  South,  we  arc  under  the  humili- 
ating necessity  of  procuring  almost  everything  that  is 
useful  or  ornamental,  from  primers  to  Bibles,  from  wafers 
to  printing-presses,  from  ladles  to  locomotives,  and  from 
j)ortfolios  to  portraits  and  pianos — comes  to  us  a  huge 
volume  bearing  the  honored  name  of  Webster  —  Xoah 
\Vebstcr,  who,  after  thirty-five  years  of  unremitting  toil, 
completed  a  work  which  is,  we  believe,  throughout  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  justly  regarded  as  the  stan- 
dard vocabulary  of  the  English  language  —  and  in  it  the 
terms  abolish,  abolition,  and  abolitionist,  are  defined  as  fol- 
lows : — 

"  Abolish,  r.  (.  To  make  void  ;  to  annul ;  to  abrogate  ;  ap- 
plied chiefly  and  appropriately  to  establish  laws,  contracts,  rites, 
customs  and  institutions  ;  as  to  abolish  laws  by  a  repeal,  actual 
or  virtual.  To  destroy  or  put  an  end  to  ;  as  to  abolish  idols." 

"Abolition,  n.  The  act  of  abolisliing  ;  or  the  state  of  lein;:; 
abolifshed  ;  an  annulling;  abrogation;  utter  destruction;  as  the 
abolition  of  laws,  decrees,  or  ordinances,  rites,  customs,  dc.  The 
'fitting  an  end  to  slavery  ;  emancipation." 

'' .Ujolitionist,  n.  A  person  who  favors  abolition,  oi  the  im- 
ui:dia'e  emancipation  of  slaves." 


118  COMPARISON    BETWEEN   TliE 

There,  gentlemen  of  the  South,  you  have  the  definitions 
of  the  transitive  verb  abolish  and  its  two  derivative  nouns, 
abolition  and  abolitionist ;  can  you,  with  the  keenest  possi- 
ble penetration  of  vision,  detect  in  either  of  these  words 
even  a  tittle  of  the  opprobrium  which  the  oligarchs,  in  their 
wily  aLd  inhuman  efforts  to  enslave  all  working  classes 
irrespective  of  race  or  color,  have  endeavored  to  attach  to 
them  ?  We  know  you  cannot ;  abolition  is  but  another 
name  for  patriotism,  and  its  other  special  synonyms  are 
generosity,  magnanimity,  reason,  prudence,  wisdom,  reli- 
gion, progress,  justice,  and  humanity. 

And  here,  by  the  way,  we  may  as  well  explain  whom 
we  refer  to  when  w^e  speak  of  gentlemen  of  the  South. 
We  say,  therefore,  that,  deeply  impressed  with  the  convic- 
tion that  slavery  is  a  great  social  and  political  evil,  a  sin 
and  a  cn?ne.,  in  the  fullest  sense,  whenever  we  speak  of  gen- 
tlemen of  the  South,  or  of  gentlemen  anywhere,  or  at  what- 
ever time,  or  in  w^iatever  connection  we  may  speak  of 
gentlemen,  we  seldom  allude  to  slaveholders,  for  the  sim- 
ple reason  that,  with  few  exceptions,  we  cannot  conscien- 
tiously recognize  them  as  gentlemen.  It  is  only  in  those 
rare  instances  where  the  crime  is  mitigated  by  circum- 
stances over  which  the  slaveholder  has  had  no  control,  or 
where  he  himself,  convinced  of  the  impropriety,  the  folly 
and  the  wickedness  of  the  institution,  is  anxious  to  abolish 
t,  that  we  can  sincerely  apply  to  him  the  sacred  appella- 
tion in  question — an  appellation  which  we  would  no  sooner 
think  of  applying  to  a  jpro-slavery  slaveholder,  or  any  other 
pro-slavery  man,  than  we  would  think  of  applying  it  to  a 
border-ruffian,  a  thiel   or  a  murderer.     Let  it  be  under- 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  ST/ TES.  IIS 

stood,  however,  that  the  rare  iustanccs  of  which  we  speak 
are  less  rare  than  many  persons  may  suppose.  We 
are  personally  acijuainted  with  several  slaveholders  in 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
who  have  unreservedly  assured  us  that  they  were  dis- 
gusted with  the  institution,  and  some  of  them  went  so  far 
as  to  say  they  wou^-^  V  ^lad  to  acquiesce  in  the  provision 
of  a  statute  whicn  nould  make  it  obligatory  on  them  all 
to  manumit  their  slaves,  witnout  the  smallest  shadow  or 
substance  of  compensation.  These,  we  believe,  are  the 
sentiments  of  all  the  respectable  and  patriotic  slavehold- 
ers, who  have  eyes  to  see,  and  see — ears  to  hear,  and 
hear  ;  who,  perceiving  the  imi).)verishing  and  degrading 
efTects  of  slavery,  are  unwilling  to  entail  it  on  their  chil- 
dren, and  who,  on  account  of  their  umlcviating  adherence 
to  truth  and  justice,  are,  like  tlie  more  intelligent  non- 
slaveholders,  worthy  of  being  regarded  as  gentlemen  in 
every  sense  of  the  term.  Such  slaveholders  were  "Wash- 
ingt<jn,  Jefiferson,  Madison,  and  other  illustrious  Virgirh 
ians,  wlio,  in  the  language  of  the  great  chief  himself,  de- 
clared it  among  their  ''fird  ivishcs  io  see  some  plan  adopted 
by  wliich  slaver}^  in  this  country,  may  be  abolished  by 
law."  The  words  embraced  wnthin  this  quotation  were 
used  by  Washington,  in  a  letter  to  John  F.  Murcer,  dated 
September  9th,  1786 — a  letter  from  which  we  shall  quot<» 
more  freely  hereafter  ;  and  we  think  his  emphatic  use  of 
the  participle  a  WiV/<'.'/,  at  that  early  day,  is  proof  positive 
that  the  glorious  "  Father  of  his  Country"  is  entitled  to 
the  first  pla2e  in  the  calendar  of  primitive  American  abo 
litionists. 


120  COMPARISON   BETWEEN   THB 

It  is  against  slavery  on  the  whole,  and  against  slav€*- 
holders  as  a  body,  that  we  wage  an  exterminating  war. 
Those  persons  who,  under  the  infamous  slave-laws  of  the 
South — ^laws  which  have  been  correctly  spoken  of  as  a 
"disgrace  to  civilization,"  and  which  must  be  annulled 
simultaneously  with  the  abolition  of  slavery — have  had 
the  vile  institution  entailed  on  them  contrary  to  their 
wills,  are  virtually  on  our  side  ;  we  may,  therefore,  very 
properly  strike  them  off  from  the  black  list  of  three  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  thousand  slaveholders,  who,  as  a 
body,  have  shocked  the  civilized  world  with  their  barba- 
rous conduct,  and  from  whose  conceited  and  presumptu- 
ous ranks  are  selected  the  ofiScers  who  do  all  the  legisla- 
tion, town,  county,  state  and  national,  for  (against)  five 
millions  of  poor  outraged  whites,  and  three  millions  of 
enslaved  negroes. 

Non-slaveholders  of  the  South  !  farmers,  mechanics  and 
workingmen,  we  take  this  occasion  to  assure  you  that  the 
slaveholders,  the  arrogant  demagogues  whom  you  have 
elected  to  offices  of  honor  and  profit,  have  hoodwinked 
you,  trifled  with  you,  and  used  you  as  mere  tools  for  the 
consummation  of  theu*  wicked  designs.  They  have  pur- 
posely kept  you  in  ignorance,  and  have,  by  moulding  your 
passions  and  prejudices  to  suit  themselves,  induced  you  to 
act  in  direct  opposition  to  your  dearest  rights  and  inter- 
ests. By  a  system  of  the  grossest  subterfuge  and  misre- 
presentation, and  in  order  to  avert,  for  a  season,  the  ven- 
geance that  will  most  assuredly  overtake  them  ere  loDg, 
they  have  taught  you  to  hate  the  abolitionists,  who  are 
^^,-^  i...of  OT.^   oT^iv  true  friands.     Now,  as  one  of  your 


FRKE    V\T>   THE    SLiVE    STATES.  121 

awn  number,  wc  appeal  to  jou  to  join  us  in  our  patriotic 
endeavors  to  rescue  the  generous  soil  of  the  South  from  the 
usurped  and  desolating  control  of  these  political  vampires. 
Once  and  forever,  at  least  so  far  as  this  country  is  CvD- 
oerned,  the  infernal  question  of  slavery  must  be  disposed 
of ;  a  speedy  and  perfect  abolishment  of  the  whole  insti- 
tution is  the  true  policy  of  the  South  —  and  this  is  the 
policy  which  we  propose  to  pursue.  Will  you  aid  us,  will 
you  assist  us,  will  you  be  freemen,  or  will  you  be  slaves  ? 
These  are  questions  of  vital  importance  ;  weigh  them  well 
in  3'our  minds  ;  come  to  a  prudent  and  firm  decision,  and 
hold  yourselves  in  readiness  to  act  in  accordance  there- 
with. You  must  either  be  for  us  or  against  us — anti- 
elavery  or  pro-slavery  ;  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  occupy 
a  neutral  ground  ;  it  is  as  certain  as  fate  itself,  that  if  you 
do  not  voluntarily  oppose  the  usurpations  and  outrages 
of  the  slavocrats,  they  will  force  you  into  involuntary 
compliance  with  their  infamous  measures.  Consider  well 
the  aggressive,  fraudulent  and  despotic  power  which  they 
have  exercised  in  the  aflfairs  of  Kanzas  ;  and  remember 
that,  if,  by  adhering  to  erroneous  principles  of  neutrality 
or  non-resistance,  you  allow  them  to  force  the  curse  of 
slavery  on  that  vast  and  fertile  field,  the  broad  area  of  all 
the  surrounding  States  and  Territories  —  the  whole  nation, 
in  fact — will  soon  fall  a  prey  to  their  diabolical  intrigues 
and  machinations.  Thus,  if  you  are  not  vigilant,  will 
thoy  take  advantage  of  your  neutrality,  and  make  you 
and  others  the  victims  of  their  inhuman  despotism.  Do 
not  reserve  the  strength  of  your  arms  until  you  shall  have 
been  rendered  powerless  to  strike  ;   the  present  is  the 


122  COMPARISON   BETWEEN   THE    STATED. 

proper  time  for  action  ;  under  all  the  circumstaices,  ap« 
thy  or  indifference  is  a  crime.  First  ascertain,  as  nearly 
as  you  can,  the  precise  nature  and  extent' of  your  duty, 
and  then,  without  a  moment's  delay,  perform  it  in  good 
faith.  To  facilitate  you  in  determining  what  considera- 
tions of  right,  justice  and  humanity  require  at  your  hands, 
is  one  of  the  primary  objects  of  this  work  ;  and  we  shall 
certainly  fail  in  our  desire  if  we  do  not  accomplish  oui 
task  in  a  manner  acceptable  to  God  and  advantageous  to 
man. 

But  we  are  carrying  this  chapter  beyond  all  ordinary 
bounds  ;  and  yet,  there  are  many  important  particulars  in 
which  we  have  drawn  no  comparison  between  the  free  and 
the  slave  States.  The  more  weighty  remarks  which  we 
intended  to  offer  in  relation  to  the  new  States  of  the  West 
and  Southwest,  free  and  slave,  shall  appear  in  the  suc- 
ceeding chapter.  With  regard  to  agriculture,  and  all  the 
multifarious  interests  of  husbandry,  we  deem  it  quite  un- 
necessary to  say  more.  Cotton  has  been  shorn  of  its 
magic  power,  and  is  no  longer  King  ;  dried  grass,  common- 
ly called  hay,  is,  it  seems,  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne. 
Commerce,  Manufactures,  Literature,  and  other  important 
subjects,  shall  be  considered  as  we  progress. 


now    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ADOLISnED.  123 


CHAPTER    II. 

HOW     SLAVERY     CAN     BE     ABOLISHED. 

Preumtnary  to  our  elucidation  of  what  we  conceive  to 
be  the  most  discreet,  fair  and  feasible  plan  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  we  propose  to  offer  a  few  additional  reasons 
why  it  should  be  abolished.  Among  the  thousand  and  one 
arguments  that  present  themselves  in  support  of  our  posi- 
tion— which,  before  we  part  with  the  reader,  we  shall  en- 
deavor to  define  so  clearly,  that  it  shall  be  regarded  as 
ultra  only  by  those  who  imperfectly  understand  it  —  is  the 
influence  which  slavery  invariably  exercises  in  depressing 
the  value  of  real  estate  ;  and  as  this  is  a  matter  in  which 
the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  of  the  West,  and  of  the 
Southwest,  are  most  deeply  interested,  we  shall  discuss  it 
in  a  sort  of  preamble  of  some  length. 

The  oligarchs  say  we  cannot  abolish  slavery  without 
infringing  on  the  right  of  property.  Again  we  tell  them 
we  do  not  recognize  property  in  man  ;  but  even  if  we  did, 
and  if  we  were  to  inventory  the  negroes  at  quadruple,  the 
value  of  their  last  assessment,  still,  impelled  by  a  sense 
of  duty  to  others,  and  as  a  matter  of  simple  justice  to  our- 
selves, we,  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  would  be 
fully  warranted  in  emancipating  all  the  slaves  at  once, 
and  that,   too,  without  any   compensation   whatever  to 


124  HOW    SLAVERY   CAN   BE   ABCIISHED. 

those  who  claim  Id  be  their  absolute  masters  and  owners 
"We  will  explain.  In  1850,  the  average  value  per  acre,  of 
land  in  the  Northern  States  was  $28,07  ;  in  the  North* 
western  $11,39  ;  in  the  Southern  $5,34  ;  and  in  the  South- 
western $6,26.  Now,  in  consequence  of  numerous  natural 
advantages,  among  which  may  be  enumerated  the  greater 
mildness  of  climate,  richness  of  soil,  deposits  of  precious 
metals,  abundance  and  spaciousness  of  harbors,  and  super- 
excellence  of  water-power,  we  contend  that,  had  it  not 
been  for  slavery,  the  average  value  of  land  in  all  the 
Southern  and  Southwestern  States,  would  have  been  at 
least  equal  to  the  average  value  of  the  same  in  the  North- 
ern States.  We  conclude,  therefore,  and  we  think  the 
conclusion  is  founded  on  principles  of  equity,  that  ycu, 
the  slaveholders,  are  indebted  to  us,  the  non-slaveholdei  s, 
in  the  sum  of  $22,73,  which  is  the  difference  between 
$28,07  and  $5,34,  on  every  acre  of  Southern  soil  in  our 
possession.  This  claim  we  bring  against  you,  because 
slavery,  which  has  inured  exclusively  to  your  own  benefit, 
if,  indeed,  it  has  been  beneficial  at  all,  has  shed  a  bligh^ 
ing  influence  over  our  lands,  thereby  keeping  them  out  of 
market,  and  damaging  every  acre  to  the  amount  specified. 
Sirs  !  are  you  ready  to  settle  the  account  ?  Let  us  see 
how  much  it  is.  There  are  in  the  fifteen  slave  States, 
346,048  slaveholders,  and  544,926,720  acres  of  land.  Now 
the  object  is  to  ascertain  how  many  acres  are  owned  by 
slaveholders,  and  now  many  by  non-slaveholders.  Sup- 
pose we  estimate  five  hundred  acres  as  the  average  landed 
property  of  each  slaveholder  ;  will  that  be  fair  ?  We 
think  i  yill,  Kking  into  consideration  the  fact  that  174,503. 


now  SLAVERY  CAN  BE  ABOLISHED.  125 

of  the  whole  number  of  slaveholders  hold  less  than  five 
slaves  each — 68,820  holding  only  one  each.  According 
to  this  hypothesis,  the  slaveholders  own  1*13,024,000  acres, 
and  the  non-slaveholders  the  balance,  with  the  exception 
of  about  40,000,000  of  acres,  which  belong  to  the  General 
Government.     The  case  may  be  stated  thus  : 

Area  of  the  Slave  States  544,926,720  acres, 
r  Acres  owned  by  slaveholders..  173,024,000 
Eitiiuatos  <  Acres  owned  by  the  government  40,000,000— 213,024,000 
(Acres  owned  by  non-slaveholders 331,902,720 

Now,  chevaliers  of  the  lash,  and  worshippers  of  slavery, 
the  total  value  of  three  hundred  and  thirty-one  million  nino 
hundred  and  two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty 
acres,  at  twenty-two  dollars  and  seventy-three  cents  per 
acre,  is  seven  billion  Jive  hundred  and  forty-four  million  one 
hundred  and  forty-eight  thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-Jive 
dollars ;  and  this  is  our  account  against  you  on  a  single 
score.  Considering  how  your  villainous  institution  has 
retarded  the  development  of  our  commercial  and  manufac- 
turing interests,  how  it  has  stifled  the  aspirations  of  in- 
ventive genius  ;  and,  above  all,  how  it  has  barred  from  us 
the  heaven-born  sw^eets  of  literature  and  religion — con- 
cernments too  sacred  to  be  estimated  in  a  pecuniary  point 
of  view — might  we  not,  with  perfect  justice  and  propriety, 
duplicate  the  amount,  and  still  be  accounted  modest  in 
our  demands  ?  Fully  advised,  however,  of  your  indi- 
gent circumstances,  we  feel  it  would  be  utterly  useless 
to  call  on  you  for  the  whole  amount  that  is  due  us  ;  we 
shall,  therefore,  in  your  behalf,  make  another  draft  on  the 
fund  of  non-slaveholding  generosity,  and  let  the  account, 
meagre  as  it  is,  stand  as  above.     Though  we  have  given 


126  HOW    SLAVE  tV    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

you  all  the  offices,  and  you  have  given  us  none  of  tlie 
benefits  of  legislation  ;  though  we  have  fought  the  battles 
of  the  South,  while  you  were  either  lolling  in  your  piazzas, 
or  playing  the  tory,  and  endeavoring  to  filch  from  us  onr 
birthright  of  freedom  ;  though  you  have  absorbed  t^e 
wealth  of  our  communities  in  sending  your  own  children 
to  Northern  seminaries  and  colleges,  or  in  employing  Yaih 
kee  teachers  to  officiate  exclusively  in  your  own  families, 
and  have  refused  to  us  the  limited  privilege  of  common 
schools  ;  though  you  have  scorned  to  patronize  our  mech^ 
nics  and  industrial  enterprises,  and  have  passed  to  the 
North  for  every  article  of  apparel,  utility,  and  adornment ; 
and  though  you  have  maltreated,  outraged  and  defrauded 
us  in  every  relation  of  life,  civil,  social,  and  political,  yet 
we  are  willing  to  forgive  and  forget  you,  if  you  will  but  do 
us  justice  on  a  single  count.  Of  you,  the  introduceiTS, 
aiders  and  abettors  of  slavery,  we  demand  indemnification 
for  the  damage  our  lands  have  sustained  on  account  there- 
of ;  the  amount  of  that  damage  is  $7,544,148,825  ;  and 
now.  Sirs,  we  are  ready  to  receive  the  money,  and  if  i1  k> 
perfectly  convenient  to  you,  we  would  be  glad  to  have  yor 
pay  it  in  specie  !  It  will  not  avail  you.  Sirs,  to  parley  (U 
prevaricate.  We  must  have  a  settlement.  Our  claim  IS 
just  and  overdue.  We  have  already  indulged  you  tor» 
long.  Your  criminal  extravagance  has  almost  ruined  TiS 
We  are  determined  that  you  shall  no  longer  play  the  pro 
fligatc,  and  fair  sumptuously  every  day  at  our  expense 
How  do  you  propose  to  settle  ?  Do  you  offer  us  your  S& 
grocs  in  part  payment  ?  We  do  not  want  your  negroas. 
We  would  not  have  all  of  them,  nor  any  number  of  them, 


HOW    SLAVERY    CA.V    BE    ABOLISHED.  12*1 

even  as  a  gift.  We  hold  ourselves  above  the  disreputa- 
ble and  iniquitous  practices  of  buying,  selling,  and  own- 
ing slaves.  What  we  demand  is  damages  in  money,  or 
other  absolute  property,  as  an  equivalent  for  the  pecuniary 
losses  we  have  suffered  at  your  hands.  You  value  your 
negroes  at  sixteen  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  propose 
to  sell  them  to  us  for  that  sura  ;  we  should  consider  our- 
selves badly  cheated,  and  disgraced  for  all  time,  here  and 
hereafter,  if  we  were  to  take  them  off  your  hands  at  six- 
teen farthings  I  We  tell  you  emphatically,  we  are  firmly 
resolved  never  to  degrade  ourselves  by  becoming  the 
mercenary  purchasers  or  proprietors  of  human  beings.  Ex- 
cept for  the  purpose  of  liberating  them,  we  would  not 
give  a  handkerchief  or  a  tooth-pick  for  all  the  slaves  in 
tlie  world.  But,  in  order  to  show  how  brazenly  absurd 
are  the  howls  and  groans  which  you  invariably  set  up 
for  compensation,  whenever  we  speak  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  we  will  suppose  your  negroes  are  worth  all  you 
ask  fur  them,.and  that  we  are  bound  to  secure  to  you  every 
cent  of  the  sum  before  they  can  become  free — in  which 
case,  our  accounts  would  stand  thus  : 

Noii-slavcholdev's  account  a!T;ainst  Slavclu)klers $7,544,148,825 

Slaveholder's  account  against  Non-slaveholders 1,600,000.000 


Balance  due  Non-slaveholders S'5/J44,148,8iio 

Now,  Sirs,  we  ask  you  in  all  seriousness.  Is  it  not 
true  that  j'ou  have  filched  from  us  nearly  five  times  the 
amount  of  the  assessed  value  of  your  slaves  ?  Why,  then, 
do  you  still  clamor  for  more  ?  Is  it  your  purpose  to  make 
the  game  perpetual  ?  Think  you  that  we  will  ever  con- 
tinue to  U;w  at  the  wave  of  your  wand,  that  we  will  bring 


128  HOW    SLA^ERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

humanity  into  everlasting  disgrace  by  licking  the  hand 
that  smites  us,  and  that  with  us  there  is  no  poiit  beyond 
which  forbearance  ceases  to  be  a  virtue  ?  Sirs,  if  these  be 
your  thoughts,  you  are  laboring  under  a  most  fatal  delu- 
sion. You  can  goad  us  no  further  ;  you  shall  oppress  us 
no  longer  ;  heretofore,  earnestly  but  submissively,  we 
have  asked  you  to  redress  the  more  atrocious  outrages 
which  you  have  perpetrated  against  us  ;  but  what  has 
been  the  invariable  fate  of  our  petitions  ?  With  scarcely 
a  perusal,  with  a  degree  of  contempt  that  added  insult  to 
injury,  you  have  laid  them  on  the  table,  and  from  thence 
they  have  been  swept  into  the  furnance  of  oblivion.  Hence- 
forth, Sirs,  we  are  demandants,  not  suppliants.  We  de- 
mand our  rights,  nothing  more,  nothing  less.  It  is  for  you 
to  decide  whether  we  are  to  have  justice  peaceably  or  by 
violence,  for  whatever  consequences  may  follow,  we  are 
determined  to  have  it  one  way  or  the  other.  Do  you  as- 
pire to  become  the  victims  of  white  non-slaveholding  ven- 
geance by  day,  and  of  barbarous  massacre  by  the  negroes 
at  night  ?  Would  you  be  instrumental  in  bringing  upon 
yourselves,  your  wives,  and  your  children,  a  fate  too  hor- 
rible to  contemplate  ?  shall  history  cease  to  cite,  as  ai 
instance  of  unexampled  cruel  cy,  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, because  the  world — the  South— shall  have  furn- 
ished a  more  direful  scene  of  atrocity  and  carnage  ?  Sirs, 
we  would  not  wantonly  pluck  a  single  hair  from  your 
heads  ;  but  we  have  endured  long,  we  have  endured 
much  ;  slaves  only  of  the  most  despicable  class  would 
endure  more.  An  enumeration  or  classification  of  all  tho 
ifcbuses,  insultfi^  wrongs,  injuries,  usurpations,  and  oppre^ 


now    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  129 

^ijns,  to  wliich  you  have  subjected  us,  would  fill  a  larger 
voluaic  than  this  ;  it  is  our  purpose,  therefore,  to   speak 
only  of  those  that  afiect  us  most  deeply.     Out  of  our  eflects 
your  have  long  since  overpaid  yourselves  for  your  negroes  ; 
and  now.  Sirs,  you  viust  emancipate  them — speedily  eman- 
cipate them,  or  we  will  emancipate  them  for  you  I     Every 
lon-slaveholdei  in  the  South  is,  or  ought  to  be,  and  will 
be,  against  you.     You  yourselves  ought  to  join  us  at  once 
in  our  laudable  crusade  against  "  the  mother  of  harlots." 
Slavery  has  polluted  and  impoverished  your  lands  ;  free- 
dom will  restore  them  to  their  virgin  purity,  and  add  from 
twenty  to  thirty  dollars  to  the  value  of  every  acre.     Cor- 
rectly speaking,  emancipation  will  cost  you  nothing  ;  the 
moment  you  abolish  slavery,  that  very  moment  will  the 
putative  value  of  the  slave  become  actual  value  in  the 
soil.     Though  there  are  ten  millions  of  people  in  the  South, 
and  though  you,  the  slaveholders,  are  only  three  hundred 
and  forty-seven  thousand  in  number,  you  have  within  a 
fraction  of  one-third  of  all  the  territory  belonging  to  the 
fifteen  slave  States.     You  have  a  landed  estate  of  173,- 
024,000  acres,  the  present  average  market  value  of  which 
is  only  $5,34  per  acre  ;  emancipate  your  slaves  on  Wednes- 
day morning,  and  on  the  Thursday  following  the  value  of 
your  lands,  and  ours  too,  will  have  increased  to  an  aver- 
age of  at  least  $28,07  per  acre.     Let  us  see,  therefore, 
even    in    this    one   particular,    whether   the    abolition  of 
slavery  will   not  be  a  real  pecuniary  advantage  to  you 
The  present  total  market  value  of  all  your  landed  property, 
at  $5,34  per  acre,  is  only  $923,248,100  I     With  the  beauty 
arv*  bunligh    of  freedom  beaming  on  the  same  estate,  it 


130  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

would  be  worth,  at  $28,07  per  acre,  $4,856,873,680       Th( 

former  sum,  deducted  from  the  latter,  leaves  a  balance  oi 

$3,933,535,520,  and  to  the  full  extent  of  this  amount  wil 

your  lands  be  increased  in  value  whenever  you  abolisl 

slavery  ;  that  is,  provided  you  abolish  it  before  it  con- 

pletely  "  dries  up  all  the  organs  of  increase."     Here  is  ; 

more  manifest  and  distinct  statement  of  the  case  : — 

Estimated  value  of  slaveholders'  lands  after  slavery  )  <a,^  or  a  -oo  cqa 
u  11  v.        V          V  1-  1-  J  >  Mjoobj/bdjbou 

shall  have  been  abolished ) 

Present  value  of  slaveholders'  lands 923,248,160 


Probable  aggregate  enhancement  of  value $3,933,535,520 

Now,  Sirs,  this  last  sum  is  considerably  more  than  twice 
as  great  as  the  estimated  value  of  your  negroes  ;  and  those 
of  you,  if  any  there  be,  who  are  yet  heirs  to  sane  mind.*- 
and  honest  hearts,  must,  it  seems  to  us,  admit  that  the 
bright  prospect  which  freedom  presents  for  a  wonderfii' 
increase  in  the  value  of  real  estate,  ours  as  well  as  yours, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  thousand  other  kindred  considerations, 
ought  to  be  quite  sufficient  to  induce  all  the  Southern 
States,  in  their  sovereign  capacities,  to  abolish  slavery  at 
the  earliest  practical  period.  You  yourselves,  instead  of 
losing  anything  by  the  emancipation  of  your  negroes — 
even  though  we  suppose  them  to  be  worth  every  dime  of 
$1,600,000,000 — would,  in  this  one  particular,  the  increased 
value  of  land,  realize  a  net  p-ofit  of  over  twenty  three hundreo 
miUiuiis  of  doUars !     Here  are  the  exact  figures  : — 

Net  increment  of  value  which  it  is  estimated  wilK 

acxrue  to  slaveholders'   lands  in  consequence  (  S3;933,535,520 
of  the  abolition  of  slavery , .  ,  ) 

Pt  tative  value  of  the  slaves 1 ,600,000,000 


Slaveholders'  estiu.ated  net  landed  profits  of  cman.     S2, 333 ,535,620 


now    SLAVKRY    CAN    BE    AUOLISIIED.  131 

What  is  th^  import  of  these  figures  ?  The}^  are  full  of 
moaning.  Thoy  proclaim  themselves  the  financial  inter- 
V  essora  for  freedom,  aiul,  with  that  open-hearted  liberality 
wiiich  is  so  characteristic  of  the  sacred  cause  in  wlioso 
behalf  they  plead,  they  propose  to  pay  you  upward  of  three 
thousand  nine  hundred  millions  of  dollars  for  the  very 
"  property"  which  you,  in  all  the  reckless  extravagance 
of  your  inhuman  avarice,  could  not  find  a  heart  to  price  at 
more  tiian  one  thousand  six  hundred  millions.  In  other 
words,  your  own  lands,  groaning  and  languishing  under 
the  monstrous  burden  of  slavery,  announce  their  willing- 
ness to  pay  you  all  you  ask  for  the  negroes,  and  ofler  you, 
besides,  a  bonus  of  more  than  twenty-three  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  if  you  will  but  convert  those  lands  into 
free  soil  !  Our  lands,  also,  cry  aloud  to  be  spared  from 
the  further  pollutions  and  desolations  of  slavery  ;  and  now. 
Sirs,  we  want  to  know  explicitly  whether,  ornot,  it  is^^our 
intention  to  heed  these  lamentations  of  the  ground  ?  We 
want  to  know  whether  you  arc  men  or  devils — whether 
you  are  entirely  selfish  and  cruelly  dishonest,  or  whether 
you  have  any  respect  for  the  rights  of  others.  We,  the 
non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  have  many  very  important 
interests  at  stake — interests  which,  heretofore,  you  have 
steadily  despised  and  trampled  under  foot,  but  which, 
henceforth,  we  shall  foster  and  defend  in  utter  defiance  of 
all  the  unhallowed  influences  which  it  is  possible  for  you, 
or  any  other  class  of  slaveholders  or  slavebreeders  to  bring 
against  us.  Not  the  least  among  these  interests  is  our 
landed  property,  which,  to  command  a  decent  pricv,  only 
needs  to  be  disencumbenid  of  slavery. 


132  HOW    SLAVERY   CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

lu  his  present  condition,  we  believe  man  exercises  one 
of  the  noblest  virtues  with  which  heaven  has  endowed  him, 
when,  without  taking  any  undue  advantage  of  his  fellow- 
men,  and  with  a  firm,  unwavering  purpose  to  confine  his 
expenditures  to  the  legitimate  pursuits  and  pleasures  of 
life,  he  covets  money  and  strives  to  accumulate  it.  Enter- 
taining this  view,  and  having  no  disposition  to  make  an 
improper  use  of  money,  we  are  free  to  confess  that  we  have 
a  greater  penchant  for  twenty-eight  dollars  than  for  five  ; 
for  ninety  than  for  fifteen  ;  for  a  thousand  than  for  one 
hundred.  South  of  Mason  and  Dix*»u's  line  we,  the  non- 
slaveholders,  have  331,902,720  acres  of  land,  the  present 
average  market  value  of  which,  as  previously  stated,  is 
only  $5,34  per  acre  ;  by  abolishing  slavery  we  expect  to 
enhance  the  value  to  an  average  of  at  least  $28,07  per  acre, 
and  thus  realize  an  average  net  increase  of  wealth  of  more 
than  seventy-five  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  The  hope  of 
realizing  smaller  sums  has  frequently  induced  men  to  per- 
petrate acts  of  injustice  ;  we  can  see  no  reason  why  the 
certainty  of  becoming  immensely  rich  in  real  estate,  or 
other  property,  should  make  us  falter  in  the  performance 
of  a  sacred  duty. 

As  illustrative  of  our  theme,  a  bit  of  personal  history 
may  not  be  out  of  place  in  this  connection.  Only  a  few 
months  have  elapsed  since  we  sold  to  an  elder  brother  an 
interest  we  held  in  an  old  homestead  which  was  willed  to 
us  many  years  ago  by  our  dear  departed  father.  The  tract 
of  land,  containing  two  hundred  acres,  or  thereabouts,  ia 
situated  two  and  a  half  miles  west  of  Mocksville,  the  cap- 
ital of  Davie  (  Dunty,  North  Carolina,  and  is  very  nearly 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED  133 

cquallr  divided  by  Bear  Creek,  a  small  tributary  of  the 
South  Yadkin.  More  than  one-third  of  this  tract — on  which 
we  have  plowed,  and  hoed,  and  harrowed,  many  a  long 
summer  without  ever  suffering  from  the  effects  of  coup  de 
soUil — is  under  cultivation  ;  the  remaining  portion  is  a  well- 
timbered  forest,  in  which,  without  being  very  particular, 
we  counted,  while  hunting  through  it  not  long  since,  sixty- 
three  different  kinds  of  indigenous  trees — to  say  nothing 
of  either  coppice,  shrubs  or  plants — among  which  the 
hickory,  oak,  ash,  beech,  birch,  and  black  walnut,  were 
most  abundant.  No  turpentine  or  rosin  is  produced  in  our 
part  of  the  State  ;  but  there  are,  on  the  place  of  which  we 
speak,  several  species  of  the  genus  Pinus,  by  the  light  of 
whose  flammable  knots,  as  radiated  on  the  contents  of 
some  half-dozen  old  books,  which,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  had 
found  their  way  into  the  neighborhood,  we  have  been  ena- 
bled to  turn  the  long  winter  evenings  to  our  advantage, 
and  have  thus  partially  escaped  from  the  prison-grounds  of 
those  loathsome  dungeons  of  illiteracy  in  which  it  has  been 
the  constant  policy  of  the  oligarchy  to  keep  the  masses, 
the  non-slaveholding  whites  and  the  negroes,  forever  con- 
fined. The  fertility  of  the  soil  may  be  inferred  from  the 
quality  and  variety  of  its  natural  productions  ;  the  meadow 
and  the  bottom,  comprising,  perhaps,  an  area  of  forty 
acres,  are  hardly  surpassed  by  the  best  lands  in  the  valley 
of  the  Yadkin.  A  thorough  examination  of  the  orchard 
will  disclose  the  fact  that  considerable  attention  has  been 
paid  to  the  selection  of  fruits  ;  the  buildings  are  tolerable  ; 
the  water  is  good.  Altogether,  to  be  frank,  and  nothing 
nore,  it  is,  for  its  sizo,  ■)ne  of  the  most  desirable  farnw  ii 


134  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

the  CDiinty,  and  will,  at  any  time,  command  the  maximum 
price  of  land  in  Western  Carolina.  Our  brother,  anxious 
to  become  the  sole  proprietor,  readily  agreed  to  give  us 
the  highest  market  price,  which  we  shall  publish  by-and- 
bye.  While  reading  the  Baltimore  Sun,  the  morning  after 
we  had  made  the  sale,  our  attention  was  allured  to  a  para- 
graph headed  "  Sales  of  Real  Estate,"  from  which,  among 
other  significant  items,  we  learned  that  a  tract  of  land 
containing  exactly  two  hundred  acres,  and  occupying  a 
portion  of  one  of  the  rural  districts  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  Pennsylvania,  near  the  Maryland  line,  had  been 
sold  the  week  before,  at  one  hun/J.red  and  five  dollars  and  fifty 
cents  per  acre.  Judging  from  the  succinct  account  given 
in  the  Sun,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that,  with  regard  to  fer- 
tility of  soil,  the  Pennsylvania  tract  always  has  been,  is 
now,  and  perhaps  always  will  be,  rather  inferior  to  the  one 
under  special  consideration.  One  is  of  the  same  size  as  the 
other  ;  both  are  used  for  agricultural  purposes  ;  in  all 
probability  the  only  essential  difference  between  them  is 
this  :  one  is  blessed  with  the  pure  air  of  freedom,  the  other 
is  cursed  with  the  malaria  of  slavery.  For  our  interest  in 
the  old  homestead  we  received  a  nominal  sum,  amounting 
to  an  average  of  iprecisel  j  five  dollars  and  sixty  cents  per  acre. 
No  one  but  our  brother,  who  was  keen  for  the  purchase, 
would  have  given  us  quite  so  much. 

And,  now,  pray  let  us  ask,  what  does  this  narrative 
teach  ?  We  shall  use  few  words  in  explanation  ;  there  is 
an  extensive  void,  but  it  can  be  better  filled  with  reflection. 
The  aggregate  value  of  the  one  tract  is  $21,100  ;  that  of 
tJie  othe'is  only  $1,120;  the  difference  is  $19,980.     We 


now    SI.AVEUY    CAN    BE    AHOLISIIED.  135 

contend,  therefore,  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances  de- 
tailed, that  the  advocates  and  retainers  of  slavery,  have, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  defrauded  our  family  out  of 
this  last-mentioned  sum.  In  like  manner,  and  on  the  sanio 
basis  of  deduction,  we  contend  that  almost  every  non- 
slaveholder,  who  cither  is  or  has  been  the  owner  of  real 
estate  in  the  South,  would,  in  a  court  of  strict  justice,  b(^ 
entitled  to  damages  —  the  amount  in  all  cases  to  be  de- 
termined with  reference  to  the  quality  of  the  land  in  ques 
tion.  "We  say  this  because,  in  violation  of  every  principle 
of  expediency,  justice,  and  humanity,  and  in  direct  oppa 
sition  to  our  solemn  protests,  slavery  was  foisted  upon  us, 
and  has  been  thus  far  perpetuated,  by  and  through  the 
diabolical  intrigues  of  the  oligarchs,  and  by  them  alone  : 
and  furthermore,  because  the  very  best  agricultural  lands 
in  the  Northern  States  being  worth  from  one  hundred  t<- 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  per  acre,  there  is  lu 
possible  reason,  except  slavery,  why  the  more  fertile  and 
congenial  soil  of  the  South  should  not  be  worth  at  least 
as  much.  If,  on  this  principle,  we  could  ascertain,  in  thf 
matter  of  real  estate,  the  total  indebtedness  of  the  slave- 
holders to  the  non-slaveholders,  we  should  doubtless  find 
the  sum  quite  equivalent  to  the  amount  estimated  on  * 
preceding  page  —  $7,544,148,825. 

AVe  have  recently  conversed  with  two  gentlemen  wh(* 
to  save  themselves  from  the  poverty  and  disgrace  o^ 
slavery,  left  North  Carolina  six  or  seven  years  ago,  an« 
who  are  now  residing  in  the  territory  of  Minnesota,  when 
thoy  have  accumulated  handsome  fortunes.  One  of  then 
hue'    traveled  extensively    i'l    Kentucky,    Missouri,    Ohio 


136  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

Indiana,  and  other  adjoining  States  ;  and,  according  to 
his  account,  and  we  know  him  to  be  a  man  of  veracity,  it 
is  almost  impossible  for  persons  at  a  distance,  to  form  a 
proper  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  current  value  of  lands  in  the  Free  and  the  Slave 
States  of  the  West.  On  one  occasion,  embarking  at 
Wheeling,  he  sailed  down  the  Ohio  ;  Virgina  and  Ken- 
tucky on  the  one  side,  Ohio  and  Indiana  on  the  other.  He 
stopped  at  several  places  along  the  river,  first  on  the  right 
bank,  then  on  the  left,  and  so  on,  until  he  arrived  at  Evans- 
ville  ;  continuing  his  trip,  he  sailed  down  to  Cairo,  thenco 
up  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  Des  Moines  ;  having 
tarried  at  different  points  along  the  route,  sometimes  in 
Missouri,  sometimes  in  Illinois.  Wherever  he  landed  on 
free  soil,  he  found  it  from  one  to  two  hundred  per  cent, 
more  valuable  than  the  slave  soil  on  the  opposite  bank. 
If,  for  instance,  the  maximum  price  of  land  was  eight  dol- 
lars in  Kentucky,  the  minimum  price  was  sixteen  in  Ohio  ; 
if  it  was  seven  dollars  in  Missouri,  it  was  fourteen  in  Illi- 
nois. Furthermore,  he  assured  us,  that,  so  far  as  he  could 
learn,  two  years  ago,  when  he  traveled  through  the  States 
of  which  we  speak,  the  range  of  prices  of  agricultural 
lands,  in  Kentucky,  was  from  three  to  eight  dollars  per 
acre  ;  in  Ohio,  from  sixteen  to  forty  ;  in  Missouri,  from 
two  to  seven  ;  in  Illinois,  from  fourteen  to  thirty  ;  in  Ar- 
kansas, from  one  to  four  ;  in  Iowa,  from  six  to  fifteen. 

In  all  the  old  slave  States,  as  is  well  known,  there  are 
vast  bodies  of  land  that  can  be  bought  for  the  merest 
trifle.  We  know  an  enterprising  capitalist  in  Philadel- 
phia  \i«ho  owns  in  his  individual  name,  in  the  State  of 


HOW    SI.AVKRY    CAK    BE    ABOMSIIED.  13t 

Virginia,  oiie  hundrtd  and  thirty  thousand  acres,  for  which  he 
paid  only  thirty-seven  and  a  half  cents  per  acre  I  Some  years 
ago,  in  certain  parts  of  North  Carolina,  several  large 
tracts  were  purchased  at  the  rate  of  twenty-Jive  cents  per 
acre  I 

Hiram  Berdan,  the  distinguished  inventor,  who  has  fre- 
quently seen  freedom  and  slavery  side  by  side,  and  who 
is,  therefore,  well  qualified  to  form  an  opinion  of  their  re- 
lative influence  upon  society,  says  : 

"  Many  comparisons  might  be  drawn  between  the  free  and  the 
slave  States,  either  of  which  should  be  sufficient  to  satisfy  any 
man  that  slavery  is  not  only  ruinous  to  free  labor  and  enterprise, 
but  injurious  to  morals,  and  blighting  to  the  soil  where  it  exists 
The  comparison  between  the  States  of  Michigan  and  Arkansas, 
which  were  admitted  into  the  Union  at  the  same  time,  will  fairly 
illustrate  the  difference  and  value  of  free  and  slave  labor,  as  well 
as  the  difference  of  moral  and  intellectual  progress  in  a  free  and 
in  a  slave  State. 

In  1836  these  young  Stars  were  admitted  into  the  constella- 
tion of  the  Union.  Michigan,  with  one-half  the  extent  of  terri- 
tory of  Arkansas,  challenged  her  sister  State  for  a  twenty  years' 
race,  and  named  as  her  rider,  '  Neither  slavery,  nor  involuntary 
servitude,  unless  for  the  punishment  of  crime,  shall  ever  be  tole- 
rated in  this  State.'  Arkansas  accepted  the  challenge,  and 
named  as  her  rider,  '  The  General  Assembly  shall  have  no  power 
to  pass  laws  for  the  emancipation  of  slaves  without  the  consent 
of  the  owners.*  Thus  mounted,  these  two  States,  the  one  free 
and  the  other  slave,  started  together  twenty  years  ago,  and  now, 
havinir  arrived  at  the  end  of  the  proposed  race,  let  us  review  and 
mark  the  progress  of  each.  Michigan  comes  out  in  1856  with 
three  times  the  population  of  slave  Arkansas,  with  five  timea 
the  assessed  value  of  farms,  farming  implements  and  machinery 
and  with  eight  times  the  number  of  public  schools." 

Ii:  the  foregoing  part  of  our  work,  we  have  drawn  com* 


138  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    IE    ABOLISHED 

parisons  between  the  old  free  States  and  the  old  slave 
States,  and  between  the  new  free  States  and  the  new  slave 
States  ;  had  we  sufficient  time  and  space,  we  might 
with  the  most  significant  results,  change  this  method  of 
comparison,  by  contrasting  the  new  free  States  with  the 
old  slave  States.  Can  the  slavocrats  compare  Ohio  with 
Virginia,  Illinois  with  Georgia,  or  Indiana  with  South  Car- 
olina, without  experiencing  the  agony  of  inexpressible 
shame  ?  If  they  can,  then  indeed  has  slavery  debased 
them  to  a  lower  deep  than  we  care  to  contemplate.  Here- 
with we  present  a  brief  contrast,  as  drawn  by  a  Maryland 
abolitionist,  between  the  most  important  old  slave  State 
and  the  most  important  new  free  State  : 

''Virginia  was  a  State,  wealthy  and  prosperous,  when  Ohio  was. 
a  wilderness  belonging  to  her.  She  gave  that  territory  away, 
and  what  is  the  result  1  Ohio  supports  a  population  of  two  mil- 
lion souls,  and  the  mother  contains  but  one  and  a  half  millions  ; 
yet  Virginia  is  one-third  larger  than  the  Buckeye  State.  Virginia 
contains  61,000  square  miles,  Ohio  but  40,000.  The  latter  sus- 
tains 50  persons  to  the  square  mile,  while  Virginia  gives  employ- 
ment to  but  25  to  the  square  mile.  Notwithstanding  Virginia's 
superiority  in  3'ears  and  in  soil — for  she  grows  tobacco,  as  well 
as  corn  and  wheat — notwithstanding  her  immense  coal-fields,  and 
her  splendid  Atlantic  ports,  Ohio,  the  infant  State,  had  21  repre- 
sentatives in  Congress  in  1850,  while  Virginia  had  but  13 — the 
latter  having  commenced  in  the  Union  with  10  Congressmen. 
Compare  the  progress  of  these  States,  and  then  say,  what  is  it  but 
Free  Labor  that  has  advanced  Ohio?  and  to  what,  except  slavery, 
can  we  attribute  the  non-progression  of  the  Old  Dominion  ?" 

As  a  striking  illustration  of  the  selfish  and  debasing 
influences  which  slavery  exercises  over  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  slaveholders  themselves,  we  will  here  state  the 


now    SLA1  ERY    CAN    BK    ABOLISHED.  180 

/act  that,  when  we,  the  non-slaveholders,  remonstrate 
against  the  continuance  of  such  a  manifest  wrong  and  in 
humanity  —  a  system  of  usurpation  and  outrage  so  obvi 
oush  detrimental  to  our  interests  —  they  fly  into  a  terrible 
passion,  exclaiming,  among  all  sorts  of  horrible  threats, 
which  are  not  unfrequently  executed,  "It's  none  of  your 
business  !" — meaning  to  say  thereby  that  their  slaves  do 
not  annoy  us,  that  slavery  alTocts  no  one  except  the  mas- 
ters and  their  chattels  personal,  and  that  we  should  give 
ourselves  no  concern  about  it,  whatever  I  To  every  man  of 
common  sense  and  honesty  of  purpose  the  preposterous- 
nes3  of  this  assumption  is  so  evident,  that  any  studied 
attempt  to  refute  it  would  be  a  positive  insult.  Would  it 
be  none  of  our  business,  if  the}^  were  to  bring  the  small-pox 
into  the  neighborhood,  and,  with  premeditated  design,  let 
"  foul  contagion  spread  ?"  Or,  if  they  were  to  throw  a 
pound  of  strychnine  into  a  public  spring,  would  that  be 
none  of  our  business  ?  Were  they  to  turn  a  j^ack  of  mad 
dogs  loose  on  the  community,  would  we  be  performing  the 
part  of  good  citizens  b}''  closing  ourselves  within  doors 
for  the  space  of  nine  days,  saying  nothing  to  anybody '/ 
Small-pox  is  a  nuisance  ;  strychnine  is  a  nuisance  ;  mad 
dogs  are  a  nuisance  ;  slavery  is  a  nuisance  ;  slaveholders 
are  a  nuisance,  and  so  are  slave-breeders  ;  it  is  our 
business,  nay,  it  is  our  imperative  duty,  to  abate  nui- 
Bances  ;  we  propose,  therefore,  with  tlie  exception  of 
strychnine,  which  is  the  least  of  all  these  nuisances,  to 
exterminate  this  catalogue  from  beginning  to  end. 

We  mean  precisely  what  our  words  express,  when  wo 
say  we  ^K-lieve  thievi's  are,  as  a  general  rule,  less  amenh- 


140  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

ble  to  the  moral  law  than  slaveholders  ;  and  here  is  the 
basis  of  our  opinion  :  Ordinarily,  thieves  wait  until  we 
acquire  a  considerable  amount  of  property,  and  then  they 
steal  a  dispensable  part  of  it  ;  but  they  deprive  no  one  of 
physical  liberty,  nor  do  they  fetter  the  mind  ;  slaveholders, 
on  the  contrary,  by  clinging  to  the  most  barbarous  relic 
of  the  most  barbarous  age,  bring  disgrace  on  themselves, 
their  neighbors,  and  their  country,  depreciate  the  value 
of  their  own  and  others'  lands,  degrade  labor,  discourage 
energy  and  progress,  prevent  non-slaveholders  from  accu- 
mulating wealth,  curtail  their  natural  rights  and  privi- 
leges, doom  their  children  to  ignorance,  and  all  its  atten- 
dant evils,  rob  the  negroes  of  their  freedom,  throw  a 
damper  on  every  species  of  manual  and  intellectual  enter- 
prise, that  is  not  projected  under  their  own  roofs  and  for 
their  own  advantage,  and,  by  other  means  equally  at 
variance  with  the  principles  of  justice,  though  but  an  in- 
significant fractional  part  of  the  population,  they  consti- 
tute themselves  the  sole  arbiters  and  legislators  for  the 
entire  South.  Not  merely  so  ;  the  thief  rarely  steals  from 
more  than  one  man  out  of  an  hundred  ;  the  slaveholder  de- 
frauds ninety  and  nine,  and  the  hundredth  does  not  escape 
him.  Again,  thieves  steal  trifles  from  rich  men  ;  slave- 
holders oppress  poor  men,  and  enact  laws  for  the  perpetu- 
ation of  their  poverty.  Thieves  practice  deceit  on  the 
wise  ;  slaveholders  take  advantage  of  the  ignorant. 

We  contend,  moreover,  that  slaveholders  are  more  crim- 
inal than  common  murderers.  We  know  all  slaveholders 
would  not  wilfully  imbue  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  their 
fellow-men  ;  but  i*-  is  %  fact,  nevertheless,  that  all  slave- 


BOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOIJSHED.  141 

holders  arc  uLider  the  shield  of  a  perpetual  license  to  mnr- 
dor.  This  license  they  have  issued  to  themselves.  Ao 
cording  to  their  own  infamous  statutes,  if  the  slave  raises 
his  hand  to  ward  off  an  unmerited  blow,  they  are  permitr 
ted  to  take  his  life  with  impunity.  We  are  personally 
acquainted  with  three  ruffians  who  have  become  actual 
murderers  under  circumstances  of  this  nature.  One  of 
them  killed  two  negroes  on  one  occasion  ;  the  other  two 
have  murdered  but  one  each.  Neither  of  them  has  ever 
been  subjected  to  even  the  preliminaries  of  a  trial  ;  not 
one  of  them  has  ever  been  arrested  ;  their  own  private 
explanations  of  the  homicides  exculpated  them  from  all 
manner  of  blame  in  the  premises.  They  had  done  noth- 
ing wrong  in  the  eyes  of  the  community.  The  negroes 
made  an  effort  to  shield  themselves  from  the  tortures  of  a 
merciless  flagellation,  and  were  shot  dead  on  the  spot* 
Their  murderers  still  live,  and  are  treated  as  honorable 
members  of  society  I  Xo  matter  how  many  slaves  or  free 
negroes  may  witness  the  perpetration  of  these  atrocious 
homicides,  not  one  of  them  is  ever  allowed  to  lift  up  his 
voice  in  behalf  of  his  murdered  brother.  In  the  South, 
negroes,  whether  bond  or  free,  are  never,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, permitted  to  utter  a  syllable  under  oath,  ex- 
cept for  or  against  persons  of  their  own  color  ;  their  tes- 
timony against  white  persons  is  of  no  more  consequence 
than  the  idle  zephjT  of  the  summer. 

We  shall  now  introduce  four  tables  of  valuable  and  in- 
teresting statistics,  to  which  piiilosophic  and  discrimina- 
ting readers  will  doubtless  have  frequent  occasions  to 
ref**-     Tables  22  and  23  wQ.  show  the  area  of  the  several 


143  HOW    SLAATIRY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

States,  in  square  miles  and  in  acres,  and  the  number  of 
inhabitants  to  the  square  mile  in  each  State  ;  also  the 
grand  total,  or  the  average,  of  every  statistical  column  ; 
tables  24  and  25  will  exhibit  the  total  number  of  inhabi- 
tants residing  in  each  State,  according  to  "-jie  census  of 
1850,  the  number  of  whites,  the  number  o^  free  colored, 
and  the  number  of  slaves.  The  rec^pital-ttions  of  these 
tables  will  be  followed  by  a  comp'  j+e  list  of  the  numbei 
of  slaveholders  in  the  United  Statz-.s,  chewing  the  exact 
number  in  each  Southern  State,  and  in  the  District  of 
(Columbia.  Most  warmly  do  we  commend  all  these  statis 
tics  to  the  studious  attention  of  the  reader.  Their  lan- 
guage is  more  eloquent  than  any  possible  combination  of 
Koman  vowels  and  consonants.  We  have  spared  no  pains 
m  arranging  them  so  as  to  express  at  a  single  glance  the 
great  truths  of  which  they  are  composed  ;  and  we  doubt 
not  that  the  plan  we  have  adopted  will  meet  with  general 
approbation.  Numerically  considered,  it  will  be  perceived 
that  the  slaveholders  are,  in  reality,  a  very  insignificant 
class.  0*'  them,  however,  we  shall  have  more  to  say  here 
after. 


HOW    SLWERY    CAN    BE    AHOLISnED. 


143 


TABLK    NO.    XXII. 


AREA      OF      rilE      FKEE     STATES. 


St.-\tC8. 

Square  Miles- 

Acres.         j 

155,080 

4,674 

55,405 

33,809 

50,014 

31,766 

7,800 

56,243 

9,280 

8,320 

47,000 

30,064 

46,000 

1,306 

10,212 

63,924 

612,597 

9! >, 827, 200  ' 

2,901.360  1 

35,359,200 

21,637,760 

32,584.960 

20,330,240 

4,992,000 

35,995,520 

5,930,200 

5,324,800 

30,080,000 

2(3,576.000 

29,440,000 

835.840 

6,535,680 

34,511,360 

392,062,082 

C  onnccticut       

Illinois -. 

Iowa    

>*aine 

IMassachusctts        

Micliioran 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jer.sey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Peiiiisvlvaiiia 

Rliode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin                

Inhabit'iits  to 
square  mile. 

.69 
79.33 
15.37 
29.24 

3.78 

18.36 

127.50 

7.07 
34.26 
58.84 
65.90 
40.55 
50.26 
112.97 
30.76 

5.66 


21,01 


TABLE    NO.    XXIII. 


AP.EA      OF      THE      SLAVE      STATES. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georcria 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississii)pi. .  . . 

Missouri.. 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas. 

Virginia 


Square  Miles, 

Acres. 

Inhabit'ntP  tc 
square  mile. 

50,722 

32,027,490 

1521 

52.108 

33,406,730 

4.02 

2,120 

1,356,800 

43.18 

69,268 

37.031,520 

1.48 

68,000 

37,120,000 

15.62 

37,680 

24.115,200 

26.07 

41,255 

26.403,200 

12.55 

11,124 

7,110,360 

52.41 

47,156 

30,179,840 

12.^6 

67,380 

43,123,200 

10.12 

50,704 

32,450,560 

17.14 

29,3^5 

18,805,400 

22.75 

45,600 

20,184,000 

21.99 

237,501 

152,002.560 

.89 

61,352 

30,165/280 
644,926,720 

23.17 

851,448 

11.29 

144 


HOW    SLAVERY   CAX    BE    ABOLISHED. 


TABLE    NO.    XXIV. 

POPULATION    OF    TUE    FREE    STATES 1850. 


BUtes. 


California 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts. . 

Michigan 

New  Hampshire. 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania... 
Rhode  Island . . . 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 


Whites. 

Free  Colored. 

Total 

91,635 

962 

92,597 

363,099 

7,693 

370,792 

846.034 

5,436 

851,470 

977,154 

11,262 

988,416 

191,881 

333 

192,214 

581.813 

1,356 

583,169 

985,450 

9,064 

994,514 

395,071 

2,583 

397,654 

317,456 

520 

317,976 

465,509 

23,810 

489,555 

3,048,325 

49,069 

3,097,394 

1,955,050 

25,279 

1,980,329 

2,258,160 

63,626 

2,311,786 

143,875 

3,670 

147,545 

313,402 

718 

314,120 

304J56 

635 

305.391 

13,233.670 

196,116 

13,434,922 

TABLE    NO.    XXV. 

POPULATION    OF    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina.. . 
South  Carolina... 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 


Whitca. 

426,514 
162,189 
71,169 
47,203 
521,572 
761,413 
255,491 
417,943 
295,718 
692,004 
653,028 
274,563 
756,836  ! 
154,034 
894,800 

6,184,477 


Free 
Colored. 

Slaves. 

2,265 

342,844 

608 

47,100 

18,073 

2,290 

932 

39,310 

2.931 

381,622 

10,011 

210,981 

17,462 

244,809 

74,723 

90,368 

930 

309,878 

2,618 

87,422 

27,463 

288,548 

8,960 

384,984 

6,422 

239,459 

397 

68,161 

64,333 

472,528 

228.138 


8,200,364 


Total 


771,623 
209,897 
91,532 
87,445 
906,185 
982;405 
517,762 
683,034 
606,326 
682,014 
869,039 
068.507 

1,002,717 
212,692 

1,421.661 


9,612,979 


now    SI.AVFRY    CAN    BE    ABOUSHED.  145 

RECAPITUlJkTION — AREA. 

Square  Mileo.  Acres. 

Area  of  the  Slave  States, 851,448  544,926,720 

Area  of  the  Free  States 612,597  392,062,082 


Balaiwcs  in  faror  of  Slave  States . . .  238,851  152,864,638 

RECAPITULATION' POPULATION 1850. 

Whiten.  Total. 

Population  of  the  Free  Statos  ....  13,233,670  13,434,922 

Population  of  the  Slave  State?  ...   6,184,477  9,612,976 


Balances  in  favor  of  the  Free  States  7,049,193  3,821,946 

FREE    COLORED    AND    SLAVE 1850. 

Free  Necrroes  in  the  Slave  States 228,138 

Free  Negroes  in  the  Free  States 196,116 

Excess  of  Free  Negroes  in  the  Slave  States 32,022 

Slaves  in  the  Slave  States 3,200,364 

Free  Negix>es  in  tl)e  Slave  States 228,138 

Aggregate  Negro  Population  of  the  Slave  States  in  1850.  . .  3,428,502 

TH«   TERRITORIES    AND   THE   DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA. 

Area  in  Square  Miles.  Population. 

Indian    Territory 71,127 

Kansas  "  114,798 

MinnesoU     "  166.025  G,077 

Nebraska      "  335,882 

N.  Mexico    "         207,007  61,547 

Oregon  "  185,030  13,294 

Uuh  "  269,170  11,380 

Washington  "  123,022 

Columbia,  Dist.  of 60  *51,687 


Aggregate  of  Area  and  Population,  1,472,121  143,986 

•Of  th«  61,aw  JnhahltJu>-#  Ir  the  Dlatrlct  of  CoIumWa,  In  1850,  10,067  were  Freo 
Colored,  anl  3.ft^7  were  ftlfc7«s 


1^6  HOW    SLAVEKT    CAN    BE    ABOLISHEE. 


NJMBER    OF    SLAVEHOLDERS    IN   THE    UNITEJ    STATES 1850, 

Alabama 29,295 

Arkansas 5^999 

Columbia,  District  of, 1,477 

Delaware 809 

Florida 3,520 

Georgia 38,456 

Kentucky 38,385 

Louisiana 20,670 

Maryland 16,040 

Mississippi 23,116 

Missouri 19,185 

North  Carolina 28,303 

South  Carolina 25,596 

Tennessee 33,864 

Texas 7,747 

Yircrinia 55,0&3 

Total  Number  of  Slaveholders  in  the  United  States 347,525 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    THE    SIJLVEHOLDERS 1850. 

Holders  of         1  slave 6S,820 

Holders  of         1  and  under         5 105,683 

Holders  of         5  and  under        10 80,765 

Holders  of       10  and  under       20 54,595 

Holders  of       20  and  under       50 29,733 

Haiders  of       50  and  under     100 6,19G 

Holders  of     100  and  under     200 1,479 

Holders  of     200  and  under     300 187 

Holders  of     300  and  under     500 56 

Holders  of     500  and  under  1,000 9 

Holders  of  1,000  an  i  over             2 


Aggregate  Number  :>f  Slaveholders  in  the  United  States.....  347,626 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOiISHEn.  14t 

It  thus  appears  that  there  arc  iiitlic  United  States,  tliree 
hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  five  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-five slaveholders.  But  this  appearance  is  deceptive. 
The  actual  number  is  certainly  less  than  two  hundred 
thousand.  Professor  De  Bow,  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Census,  informs  us  that  "  the  number  includes  slave- 
hirers,"  and  furthermore,  that  "  where  the  party  owns 
slaves  in  different  counties,  or  in  different  States,  he  will 
be  entered  more  than  once."  Now  every  Southerner,  who 
has  any  practical  knowledge  of  affairs,  must  know,  and 
does  know,  that  every  New  Year's  day,  like  almost  evcrj 
other  day,  is  desecrated  in  the  South,  by  publicly  hiring 
out  slaves  to  large  numbers  of  non-slaveholders.  The 
slave-owners,  who  are  the  exclusive  manufacturers  of  pub 
lie  sentiment,  have  popularized  the  dictum  that  white  ser- 
vants, decency,  virtue,  and  justice,  are  unfashionable  ;  and 
there  are,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  nearly  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  non-slaveholding  sj^'cophants,  who  have 
subscribed  to  this  false  philosophy,  and  who  are  giving 
constant  encouragement  to  the  infamous  practices  of 
slaveholding  and  slave-breeding,  by  hiring  at  least  one 
slave  every  year. 

In  the  Southern  States,  as  in  all  other  slave  countries, 
there  are  tliree  odious  classes  of  mankind  ;  the  slaves 
tliemselves,  who  are  cowards  ;  the  slaveholders,  who  are 
tyrants  ;  and  the  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers,  who  are 
lickspittles.  ^Vhethe^  either  class  is  really  entitled  to  the 
regards  of  a  gentleman  is  a  matter  of  grave  doubt.  TIjo 
slaves  are  pitiable  ;  the  slaveholders  are  detestable  ;  the 
elave-hirefs  are  contemptible. 


l48  HOW   SLAVERY   CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

With  the  statistics  at  our  command,  it  is  impossible  for 
ns  to  ascertain  the  exact  numbers  of  slaveholders  and  non- 
slaveholding  slave-hirers  in  the  slave  States  ;  but  we  have 
data  whicli  will  enable  us  to  approach  very  near  to  the 
facts.  The  town  from  which  we  hail,  Salisbury,  the  capi- 
tal of  Rowan  county.  North  Carolina,  contains  about  twen- 
ty-three hundred  inhabitants,  including  three  hundred  and 
seventy-two  slaves,  fifty-one  slaveholders,  and  forty-three 
non-slaveholding  slave-hirers.  Taking  it  for  granted  that 
this  town  furnishes  a  fair  relative  proportion  of  all  the 
slaveholders,  and  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers  in  the 
slave  States,  the  whole  number  of  the  former,  including 
those  who  have  been  "  entered  more  than  once,"  is  one 
hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty- 
one  ;  of  the  latter,  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  seventy-four ;  and,  now,  estimating  that 
there  are  in  ^taryland,  Virginia,  and  other  grain-growing 
States,  an  aggregate  of  two  thousand  slave-owners,  who 
have  cotton  plantations  slocked  with  negroes  in  the  far 
South,  and  who  have  been  "entered  more  than  once,"  we 
find,  as  the  result  of  our  calculations,  that  the  total  num- 
ber of  actual  slaveholders  in  the  Union,  is  precisely  one 
hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty- 
one — as  follows  : 

Number  of  actual  slaveholders  in  the  United  States 186,551 

Nuraber  "  entered  more  than  once" 2,000 

Number  of  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers 158,974 

Aggregate  number,  according  to  De  Bow 347,525 

The  greater  numl  er  of  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers,  are 


now  SLAVERY  CAN  BE  ABOLISHED.  149 

a  kind  of  third-rate  aristocrats — persons  who  formerly 
owned  slaves,  but  whom  slavory,  as  is  its  custom,  has 
dragged  down  to  poverty,  leaving  them,  in  their  false  and 
shiftless  pride,  to  eke  out  a  miserable  existence  over  the 
hapless  chattels  personal  of  other  men. 

So  it  seems  that  the  total  number  of  actual  slave-own 
ers,  im^uding  their  entire  crew  of  cringing  lickspittles, 
against  whom  we  have  to  contend,  is  but  three  hundred 
and  forty-seven  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty-five. 
Against  this  army  for  the  defense  and  propagation  of  sla- 
very, we  think  it  will  be  an  easy  matter — independent  of 
the  negroes,  who,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  would  be  do- 
lighted  with  an  opportunity  to  cut  their  masters'  throats, 
and  without  accepting  of  a  single  recruit  from  either  of 
the  free  States,  England,  France  or  Germany — to  muster 
one  at  least  three  times  as  large,  and  far  more  respectable 
for  its  utter  extinction.  We  hope,  however,  and  believe, 
that  the  matter  in  dispute  may  be  adjusted  without  array- 
ing these  armies  against  each  other  in  hostile  attitude. 
We  desire  peace,  not  war — justice,  not  blood.  Give  us 
fair-play,  secure  to  us  the  right  of  discussion,  the  freedom 
of  speech,  and  we  will  settle  the  difEculty  at  the  ballot- 
box,  not  on  the  battle-ground — by  force  of  reason,  not  by 
force  of  arms.  But  we  are  wedded  to  one  purpose  from 
which  no  earthly  power  can  ever  divorce  us.  We  are  de- 
termined to  abolish  slavery  at  all  hazards — in  defiance  of 
all  ihe  opposition,  of  whatever  nature,  which  it  is  possible 
for  the  slavocrats  to  bring  against  us.  Of  this  they  may 
take  due  notice,  and  govern  themseh^es  accordingly. 
Before  wt^  proceed  further,  it  may  be  necessary  to  call 


150  now    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED, 

attention  to  the  fact  that,  though  the  ostensible  proprie- 
torship of  the  slaves  is  vested  in  fewer  individuals  than 
we  have  usually  counted  in  our  calculations  concerning 
them,  the  force  and  drift  of  our  statistics  remain  unim- 
paired. In  the  main,  all  our  figures  are  correct.  The 
tables  which  we  have  prepared,  especially,  and  the  reca- 
pitulations of  those  tables,  may  be  relied  on  with  all  the 
confidence  that  is  due  to  American  official  integrity  ;  for, 
as  we  have  substantially  remarked  on  a  previous  occasion, 
the  particulars  of  which  they  are  composed  have  been 
obtained  from  the  returns  of  competent  census  agents, 
who,  with  Prof.  De  Bow  as  principal,  were  expressly  em- 
ployed to  collect  them.  As  for  our  minor  labors  in  the 
science  of  numbers,  we  cheerfully  submit  them  to  the  can- 
did scrutiny  of  the  impartial  critic. 

A  majority  of  the  slaveholders  with  whom  we  are  ac- 
quainted— and  we  happen  to  know  a  few  dozen  more  than 
we  care  to  know — own,  or  pretend  to  own,  at  least  fifteen 
negroes  each  ;  some  of  them  are  the  masters  of  more  than 
fifty  each  ;  and  we  have  had  the  honor  (!)  of  an  introduc- 
tion to  one  man  who  is  represented  as  the  owner  of  six- 
teen hundred  !  It  is  said  that  if  all  the  lands  of  this  lat- 
ter worthy  were  in  one  tract,  they  might  be  formed  into 
two  counties  of  more  than  ordinary  size  ;  he  owns  plan- 
tations and  woodlands  in  three  cotton-growing  States. 

The  quantity  of  land  owned  by  the  slaveholder  is  gene- 
rally in  proportion  to  the  number  of  negroes  at  his  '  quar- 
ter ;"  the  master  of  only  one  or  two  slaves,  if  engaged  in 
aorriculture,  seldom  owns  less  than  three  hundred  acres  ; 
the  holder  of  eight  or  ten  slaves  usually  owns  from  a  thou- 


now    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  151 

sand  to  fiftccu  hundred  acres  ;  five  thousand  acres  are  not 
unfrcquently  found  in  the  possession  of  the  master  of  fifty 
slaves  ;  while  in  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  about  twelve 
months  ago,  a  certain  noted  slaveholder  was  pointed  out 
to  us,  and  reported  as  the  owner  of  nearly  two  hundred 
thousand  acres  in  the  State  of  Mississippi.  How  the  great 
mass  of  illiterate  poor  whites,  a  majority  of  whom  are  tlie 
indescribably  wretched  tenants  of  these  slavocratic  land- 
sharks,  arc  specially  imposed  upon  and  socially  outlawed, 
we  shall,  if  we  have  time  and  space,  take  occasion  to  ex- 
plain in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

Thus  far,  in  giving  expression  to  our  sincere  and  settled 
opinions,  we  have  endeavored  to  show,  in  the  first  place, 
that  slavery  is  a  great  moral,  social,  civil,  and  political 
evil — a  dire  enemy  to  tme  wealth  and  national  greatness, 
and  an  atrocious  crime  against  both  God  and  man  ;  and, 
in  the  second  place,  that  it  is  a  paramount  duty  which  we 
owe  to  heaven,  to  the  earth,  to  America,  to  humanity,  to 
(^)ur  posterity,  to  our  consciences,  and  to  our  pockets,  to 
adopt  efiectual  and  judicious  measures  for  its  immediate 
abolition.  The  questions  now  arise,  IIow  can  the  evil  be 
averted  ?  What  are  the  most  prudent  and  practical  means 
that  can  be  devised  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  ?  In  tlio 
solution  of  these  problems  it  becomes  necessary  to  deal 
with  a  multiplicity  of  stubborn  realities.  And  yet,  we  can 
see  no  reason  why  North  Carolina,  in  her  sovereign  capa- 
city, may  not,  with  equal  ease  and  success,  do  what  forty- 
five  other  States  of  the  world  have  done  within  the  last 
forty-five  years.  Xor  do  we  believe  any  good  reason  exists 
why  Virgil  ja  should  not  perfirm  as  great  a  deed  in  18n9 


152  BO^    SLAVERY   CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

as  did  New-York  in  1799.  Massachusetts  abolished  slav- 
ery in  1780  ;  would  it  not  be  a  masterly  stroke  of  policy 
in  Tennessee,  and  every  other  slave  State,  to  abolish  it  in 
or  before  1860? 

Not  long-  since,  a  slavocrat,  writing  on  this  subject,  said, 
apologetically,  "  we  frankly  admit  that  slavery  is  a  mon- 
strous evil  J  but  what  are  we  to  do  with  an  institution 
which  has  baffled  the  wisdom  of  our  greatest  statesmen  ?^ 
Unfortunately  for  the  South,  since  the  days  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  their  illustrious  compatriots,  she 
has  never  had  more  than  half  a  dozen  statesmen,  all  told  ; 
of  mere  politicians,  wii"e-pullers,  and  slave-driving  dema- 
gogues, she  has  had  enough,  and  to  spare  ;  but  of  states- 
men, in  the  true  sense  of  the  term,  she  has  had,  and  now 
has,  but  precious  few — fewer  just  at  this  time,  perhaps, 
than  ever  before.  It  is  far  from  a  matter  of  sm'prise  to  us 
that  slavery  has,  for  such  a  long  period,  baffled  the  "  wis- 
dom'^ of  the  oligarchy  ;  but  our  surprise  is  destined  to  cul- 
minate in  amazement,  if  the  wisdom  of  the  non-slaveholders 
does  not  soon  baffle  slavery. 

From  the  eleventh  year  previous  to  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  centuiy  down  to  the  present  moment,  slavehold- 
ers and  slave-breeders,  who,  to  speak  naked  truth,  are,  as 
a  general  thing,  unfit  to  occupy  any  honorable  station  in 
life,  have,  by  chicanery  and  usurpation,  wielded  all  the 
official  power  of  the  South  ;  and,  excepting  the  patriotic 
services  of  the  noble  abolitionists  above-mentioned,  the  sole 
aim  and  drift  of  their  legislation  has  been  to  aggrandize 
themselves,  to  strengthen  slavery,  and  to  keep  the  poor 
vIiit^B,  the  constitutional  majority,  bowed  down  in  tUt* 


now    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISUED.  153 

deepest  depths  of  degradation.  We  propose  to  subvert 
this  entire  system  of  olig-archal  despotism.  We  think  there 
should  be  sojiu  legislation  for  decent  white  men,  not  alone 
for  negroes  and  slaveholders.  Slavery  lies  at  the  root  of 
all  the  shame,  poverty,  ignorance,  tyranny  and  imbecility 
of  the  South  ;  slavery  must  be  thoroughly  eradicated  ;  let 
this  be  done,  and  a  glorious  future  will  await  us. 

The  statesmen  who  are  to  abolish  slavery  in  Kentucky, 
must  be  mainly  and  independently  constituted  by  the  non- 
slaveholders  of  Kentucky  ;  so  in  every  other  slave  State. 
Past  experience  has  taught  us  the  sheer  folly  of  ever  ex- 
pecting voluntary  justice  from  the  slaveholders.  Their 
illicit  intercourse  with  "  the  mother  of  harlots"  has  been 
kept  up  so  long,  and  their  whole  natures  have,  in  conse- 
quence, become  so  depraved,  that  there  is  scarcely  a 
spark  of  honor  or  magnanimity  to  be  found  amongst  them. 
As  well  might  one  expect  to  hear  highwaymen  clamoring 
for  a  universal  interdict  against  traveling,  as  to  expect 
slaveholders  to  pass  laws  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
Under  all  the  circumstances,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  non- 
slaveholders  to  mark  out  an  independent  course  for  them- 
selves, to  steer  entirely  clear  of  the  oligarchy,  and  to 
utterly  contemn  and  ignore  the  many  vile  imstruments  of 
power,  animate  and  inanimate,  which  have  been  so  freely 
and  so  effectually  used  for  their  enslavement.  Now  is  the 
time  for  them  to  assert  their  rights  and  liberties  ;  never 
before  was  there  such  an  appropriate  period  to  strike  foi 
Freedom  in  the  South. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  better  sense,  the  purer  patriot- 
ism, and  the  more  practical  justice  of  the  non-slaveholders, 

1* 


154  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHEE 

the  Mi  idle  States  and  New  England  would  still  be  groan. 
Ing  and  groveling  under  the  ponderous  burden  of  slavery  ; 
New-Yurk  would  never  have  risen  above  the  dishonorable 
level  of  Virginia  ;  Pennsylvania,  trampled  beneath  the 
iron-heel  of  the  black  code,  would  have  remained  the  un- 
progressive  parallel  of  Georgia  ;  Massachusetts  would 
have  continued  till  the  present  time,  and  Heaven  only 
knows  how  much  longer,  the  contemptible  coequal  of 
South  Carolina. 

Succeeded  by  the  happiest  moral  effects  and  the  grand- 
est physical  results,  we  have  seen  slavery  crushed  be- 
neath the  wisdon  of  the  non-slaveholding  statesmen  of 
the  North  ;  followed  by  corresponding  influences  and 
achievements,  many  of  us  who  have  not  yet  passed  the 
meridian  of  life,  are  destined  to  see  it  equally  crushed 
beneath  the  wisdom  of  the  non-slaveholding  Statesmen  of 
the  South.  With  righteous  indignation,  we  enter  our  dis- 
claimer against  the  base  yet  baseless  admission  that 
Louisiana  and  Texas  are  incapable  of  producing  as  great 
statesmen  as  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut.  AVhat  has 
been  done  for  New  Jersey  by  the  statesmen  of  New  Jer- 
sey, can  be  done  for  North  Carolina  by  the  statesmen  of 
North  Carolina  ;  the  wisdom  of  the  former  State  has  abol- 
ished slavery  ;  as  sure  as  the  earth  revolves  on  its  axis, 
the  wisdom  of  the  latter  will  not  do  less. 

That  our  plan  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  is  the  best 
that  can  be  devised,  we  have  not  the  vanity  to  contend  ; 
but  that  it  is  a  g^  od  one,  and  will  do  to  act  upon  until  a 
better  shall  havl  been  suggested,  we  do  firmly  and  con- 
pcientiously  believe.     Though  but  little  skilled  in  the  deli- 


now    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  155 

caic  art  of  surgcn ,  we  have  pretty  thoroughly  probed 
slavery,  the  frightful  tumor  on  the  body  politic,  and  have, 
we  think,  ascertained  the  precise  remedies  requisite  fur  a 
speedy  t^ud  perfect  cure.  Possibly  the  less  ardent  friends 
of  freedom  may  object  to  our  prescription,  on  the  ground 
that  some  of  its  ingredients  are  too  griping,  and  that  it 
u'ill  cost  the  patient  a  deal  of  most  excruciating  pain. 
But  let  them  remember  that  the  patient  is  exceedingly 
refractory,  that  the  case  is  a  desperate  one,  and  that  dras- 
tic remedies  are  indispensably  necessary.  When  tlicy 
shall  have  invented  milder  yet  equally  efficacious  ones, 
it  will  be  time  enough  to  discontinue  the  use  of  ours  — 
then  no  one  will  be  readier  than  we  to  discard  the  infalli- 
ble strong  recipe  for  the  infallible  mild.  Not  at  the  per- 
secution of  a  few  thousand  slaveholders,  but  at  the  resti- 
tution of  natural  rights  and  prerogatives  to  several  mil- 
lions of  non-slaveholders,  do  we  aim. 

Inscribed  on  the  banner,  which  we  herewith  unfurl  to 
the  world,  with  the  full  and  fixed  determination  to  stand 
by  it  or  die  by  it,  unless  one  of  more  virtuous  efficacy  shall 
1)6  presented,  are  the  mottoes  which,  in  substance,  embody 
the  principles,  as  we  conceive,  that  should  govern  us  in 
our  patriotic  warfare  against  the  most  subtle  and  insiv li- 
ons foe  that  ever  menaced  the  inalienable  rights  and  liber- 
ties and  dearest  interests  of  America  : 
1st.   Thorough   Organization   and   Independent   Political 

Action  on  the  part  of  the  Non-Slaveholding  whites  of 

the  South. 
2nd.  Ineligibility  of  Slaveholders  —  Never  another  vote  to 

the  Trafficker  in  Human  Flesh. 


1^6  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

3rd.  No  Co-operation  with  Slaveholders  in  Politics — No 
Fellowship  with  them  in  Religion — No  Affiliation  with 
them  in  Society. 

4th.  No  Patronage  to  Slaveholding  Merchants — No  Guest- 
ship  in  Slave-waiting  Hotels  —  No  Fees  to  Slaveholding 
Lawyers — No  Employment  of  Slaveholding  Physicians 
—  No  Audience  to  Slaveholding  Parsons. 

6th.  No  Recognition  of  Pro-slavery  Men,  except  as  Ruf- 
fians, Outlaws,  and  Criminals. 

6th.  Abrupt  Discontinuance  of  Subscription  to  Pro-slavery 
Newspapers. 

7th.  The  Greatest  Possible  Encouragement  to  Free  White 
Labor. 

8.  No  more  Hiring  of  Slaves  by  Non-slaveholders. 

9th.  Immediate  Death  to  Slavery,  or  if  not  immediate, 
unqualified  Proscription  of  its  Advocates  during  the  Pe- 
riod of  its  Existence. 

10th.  A  Tax  of  Sixty  Dollars  on  every  Slaveholder  for  each 
and  every  Negro  in  his  Possession  at  the  present  time, 
or  at  any  intermediate  time  between  now  and  the  4  th 
of  July,  1863 — said  Money  to  be  Applied  to  the  trans- 
portation of  the  Blacks  to  Liberia,  to  their  Colonization 
in  Central  or  South  America,  or  to  their  Comfortable 
Settlement  within  the  Boundaries  of  the  United  States. 

nth.  An  additional  Tax  of  Forty  Dollars  per  annum  to  be 
levied  annually,  on  every  Slaveholder  for  each  and  every 
Negro  found  in  his  possession  after  the  4th  of  July, 
1863 — said  Money  to  be  paid  into  the  hands  of  the  Ne- 
groes so  held  in  Slavery,  or,  in  cases  of  death,  to  their 
nejt  of  kin,  and  to  be  used  by  them  at  their  own  option. 


HOW    SLAVERY    C^N    BE    ABOLISHED.  161 

This,  then,  is  the  outline  of  our  scheme  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States.  Let  it  be  acted  upon 
with  due  promptitude,  and,  as  certain  as  trutli  is  mightier 
than  error,  fifteen  years  will  not  elapse  before  every  foot 
of  territory,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware  to  the  embo<j- 
uing  of  the  Rio  Grande,  will  glitter  with  the  jewels  of 
freedom.  Some  time  during  this  year,  next,  or  the  year 
following,  let  there  be  a  general  convention  of  non-slave- 
holders from  every  slave  State  in  the  Union,  to  deliberate 
on  the  momentous  issues  now  pending.  First,  let  them 
adopt  measures  for  holding  in  restraint  the  diabolical  ex- 
cesses of  the  oligarchy  ;  secondly,  in  order  to  cast  off  the 
thraldom  which  the  infamous  slave-power  has  fastened 
upon  them,  and,  as  the  first  step  necessary  to  be  taken  to 
regain  the  inalienable  rights  and  liberties  with  which  they 
were  invested  by  Nature,  but  of  which  they  have  been 
divested  by  the  accursed  dealers  in  human  flesh,  let  them 
devise  v^ays  and  means  for  the  complete  annihilation  of 
slavery ;  thirdly,  let  them  put  forth  an  equitable  and  com- 
prehensive platform,  fully  defining  their  position,  and  ih- 
viting  the  active  sympathy  and  co-operatiou  of  the  mil- 
lions of  down-trodden  non-slaveholders  throughout  the 
Southern  and  Southwestern  States.  Let  all  these  things 
be  done,  not  too  hastily,  but  with  calmness,  deliberation, 
prudence,  and  circumspection  ;  if  need  be,  let  the  dele- 
gates to  the  convention  continue  in  session  one  or  two 
weeks  ;  only  let  their  labors  be  wisely  and  thoroughly  per- 
lormed  ;  let  them,  on  Wednesday  morning,  present  to  the 
poor  whites  of  the  South,  a  well-digested  scheme  for  the 
recJaraatiol  of  their  ancient  rights  and  prerogatives,  and, 


158  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOHSHED. 

on  the  Thursday  following,  slaA^ery  in  the  United  States  will 
be  worth  absolutely  less  than  nothing  ;  for  then,  besides  be- 
ing so  vile  and  precarious  that  nobody  will  want  it,  it  will 
»e  a  lasting  reproach  to  those  in  whose  hands  it  is  lodged. 
Were  it  not  that  other  phases  of  the  subject  admonish 
as  to  be  economical  of  space,  we  could  suggest  more  than 
a  dozen  different  plans,  either  of  which,  if  scrupulously 
carried  out,  would  lead  to  a  wholesome,  speedy,  and  per- 
fect termination  of  slavery.  Under  all  the  circumstances, 
however,  it  might  be  difiScult  for  us — perhaps  it  would 
not  be  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  for  any  body  else — 
to  suggest  a  better  plan  than  the  one  above.  Let  it,  or 
one  embodying  its  principal  features,  be  adopted  forth 
with,  and  the  last  wail  of  slavery  will  soon  be  heard, 
growing  fainter  and  fainter,  till  it  dies  utterly  away,  to  be 
succeeded  by  the  jubilant  shouts  of  emancipated  millions. 
Henceforth,  let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  ownership 
in  slaves  constitutes  ineligibility — that  it  is  a  crime,  as 
we  verily  believe  it  is,  to  vote  for  a  slavocrat  for  any  office 
whatever.  Indeed,  it  is  our  honest  conviction  that  all  the 
pro-slavery  slaveholders,  who  are  alone  responsible  for  the 
continuance  of  the  baneful  institution  among  us,  deserve 
to  be  at  once  reduced  to  a  parallel  with  the  basest  criminals 
that  lie  fettered  within  the  cells  of  our  public  prisons. 
Beyond  the  power  of  computation  is  the  extent  of  the  moral, 
social,  civil,  and  political  evils  which  they  have  brought, 
and  are  still  bringing,  on  the  country.  Were  it  possible 
that  the  whole  number  could  be  gathered  together  and 
transformed  into  four  equal  gangs  of  licensed  robbers,  ruf- 
fip-ns,  thieves,  and  niurdc^'crs,   a  ^ciety,  we  feel  assured, 


HOW    SUiVERY    CAN    BE   ABOUSHED.  159 

would  sufTor  less  from  t  icir  atrocities  then  than  it  docs 
now.  Let  ihe  wholesome  public  sentiment  of  the  non- 
slaveholders  be  vigilant  and  persevering  in  bringing  them 
down  to  their  proper  level.  Long  since,  and  in  the  most 
unjust  and  cruel  manner,  have  they  socially  outlawed  the 
non-slaveholders  ;  now  security  against  further  oppression, 
and  indemnity  for  past  grievances,  make  it  incumbent  on 
tlie  non-slaveholders  to  cast  them  into  the  identical  pit 
that  they  dug  for  their  betters — thus  teaching  them  how  to 
catch  a  Tartar  I 

At  the  very  moment  we  write,  as  has  been  the  case  ever 
since  the  United  States  have  had  a  distinct  national  exist- 
ence, and  as  will  always  continue  to  be  the  case,  unless 
right  triumphs  over  wrong,  all  the  civil,  political,  and  other 
offices,  within  the  gift  of  the  South,  are  filled  with  no<^ro- 
nursed  incumbents  from  the  ranks  of  that  execrable  band 
of  misanthropes — three  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand 
in  number — who,  for  the  most  part,  obtain  their  living  by 
breeding,  buying  and  selling  slaves.  The  magistrates  in 
the  villages,  the  constables  in  the  districts,  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  towns,  the  mayors  of  the  cities,  the  sherifls 
of  the  counties,  the  judges  of  the  various  courts,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  legislatures,  the  governors  of  the  States,  the 
representatives  and  senators  in  Congress — are  all  slave- 
holders. Nor  does  the  catalogue  of  their  usurpations  end 
here.  Through  the  most  heart-sickening  arrogance  and 
bribery,  they  have  obtained  control  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment, and  all  the  consuls,  ambassadors,  envoys  extraordi- 
nary and  ministers  plenipotentiary,  who  are  chosen  from 
tlie  South,   and  commissioned  to  foreign   countries,   aro 


160  HOW    SLiVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

selected  with  special  reference  to  the  purity  of  their  pro 
slavery  antecedents.  If  credentials  have  ever  been  issued 
to  a  single  non-slaveholder  of  the  South,  we  are  ignorant 
of  both  the  fact  and  the  hearsay  ;  indeed,  it  would  be  very 
strange  if  this  much  abused  class  of  persons  were  permit- 
ted to  hold  important  offices  abroad,  when  they  are  not 
allowed  to  hold  unimportant  ones  at  home. 

And,  then,  there  is  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States, 
which  office  has  been  held  forty-eight  years  by  slaveholders 
from  the  South,  and  only  twenty  years  by  non-slaveholders 
from  the  North.  Nor  is  this  the  full  record  of  oligarchal 
obtrusion.  On  an  average,  the  offices  of  Secretary  of 
State,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Secretary  of  War,  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral and  Attorney-General,  have  been  under  the  control  of 
slave-drivers  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  time.  The  Chief  Jus- 
tices and  the  Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  the  Presidents  pro  tem.  of  the  Senate, 
and  the  Speakers  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  have, 
in  a  large  majority  of  instances,  been  slave-breeders  from 
the  Southern  side  of  the  Potomac.  Five  slaveholding  Pres- 
idents have  been  reelected  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  the 
Republic,  while  no  non-slaveholder  has  ever  held  the  office 
more  than  a  single  term.  Thus  we  see  plainly  that  even 
the  non-slaveholders  of  the  North,  to  whose  freedom,  en- 
ergy, enterprise,  intelligence,  wealth,  population,  power, 
progress,  and  prosperity,  our  country  is  almost  exclusively 
indebted  for  its  high  position  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  have  been  arrogantly  denied  a  due  participation  in 
the  honorp  of  federa    j'ffice.     When  "  the  sum  of  all  villain- 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOUSHED.  161 

ies''  shall  have  ceased  to  exist,  then  the  rights  of  the  non- 
slaveholders  of  the  North,  of  the  South,  of  the  East,  and  of 
the  West,  will  be  duly  recognized  and  respected  ;  not  before. 

With  all  our  heart,  we  hope  and  believe  it  is  the  full 
and  fixed  determination  of  a  majority  of  the  more  intelli- 
gent and  patriotic  citizens  of  this  Republic,  that  the  Pres- 
idential chair  shall  never  again  be  filled  by  a  slavocrat. 
Safely  may  we  conclude  that  the  doom  of  the  oligarchy  is 
already  sealed  with  respect  to  that  important  and  dignified 
station  ;  it  now  behooves  us  to  resolve,  with  equal  firm- 
ness and  effect,  that,  after  a  certain  period  during  the  next 
decade  of  years,  no  slaveholder  shall  occupy  any  position 
in  the  Cabinet,  that  no  slave-breeder  shall  be  sent  as  a  di- 
plomatist to  any  foreign  country,  that  no  slave-driver  shall 
be  permitted  to  bring  further  disgrace  on  either  the  Senate 
or  the  House  of  Representatives,  that  the  chief  justices, 
associate  justices,  and  judges  of  the  several  courts,  the 
governors  of  the  States,  the  members  of  the  legislatures, 
and  all  the  minor  functionaries  of  the  land,  shall  be  freo 
from  the  heinous  crime  of  ownership  in  man. 

For  the  last  sixty-eight  years,  slaveholders  have  been 
the  sole  and  constant  representatives  of  the  South,  and 
what  have  they  accomplished  ?  It  requires  but  little  tirao 
and  few  words,  to  tell  the  story  of  their  indiscreet  and 
unhallowed  performances.  In  fact,  with  what  we  have 
already  said,  gestures  alone  would  suffice  to  answer  the 
inquiry.  We  can  make  neither  a  more  truthful  nor  em- 
phatic reply  than  to  point  to  our  thinly  inhabited  States, 
to  our  fields  despoiled  of  their  virgin  soil,  to  the  despicable 
price  o/  lands^  to  our  unvisited  cities  and  towns,  to  our 


162  now    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

vacant  harbors  and  idle  water-power,  to  the  dreary  ab- 
sence of  shipping  and  manufactories,  to  our  unpensioned 
soldiers  of  the  revolution,  to  the  millions  of  living  monu- 
ments of  ignorance,  to  the  poverty  of  the  whites,  and  to 
the  wretchedness  of  the  blacks. 

Either  directly  or  indirectly,  are  slave-driving  dema- 
gogues, who  have  ostentatiously  set  up  pretensions  to 
statesmanship,  responsible  for  every  dishonorable  weak- 
ness and  inequality  that  exists  between  the  North  and  the 
South.  Let  them  shirk  the  responsibility  if  they  can  ;  but 
it  is  morally  impossible  for  them  to  do  so.  We  know 
how  ready  they  have  always  been  to  cite  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  North,  as  a  valid  excuse  for  their  inability 
to  procure  appropriations  from  the  General  Government, 
for  purposes  of  internal  improvement,  for  the  establish- 
ment of  lines  of  ocean  steamers  to  South  American  and 
European  ports,  and  for  the  accomplishment  of  othe/  ob- 
jects. Before  that  apology  ever  escapes  from  their  lips 
again,  let  them  remember  that  the  numerical  weakness  of 
the  South  is  wholly  attributable  to  their  own  villainous 
statism.  Had  the  Southern  States,  in  accordance  with 
the  principles  enunciated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, abolished  slavery  at  the  same  time  the  Nortliern 
States  abolished  it,  there  would  have  been,  long  since, 
and  most  assuredly  at  this  moment,  a  larger,  wealthier, 
wiser,  and  more  powerful  population,  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line,  than  there  now  is  north  of  it.  This  fact  be- 
ing so  well  established  that  no  reasonable  man  denies  it, 
it  is  evident  that  the  oligarchy  will  have  to  devise  an- 
other subterfuge  for  even  temporary  relief. 


now  SLAVERY  CAN  BE  ABOLISHED.  163 

Until  slavery  and  si  weliol Jcis  cease  to  be  the  only 
favored  objects  of  IcgisVation  in  the  South,  the  North  will 
continue  to  maintain  the  ascendency  in  every  important 
particular.  With  those  loathsome  objects  out  of  the  way, 
it  would  not  take  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  bring  her  up,  in  all  re- 
Bpccts,  to  a  glorious  equality  with  the  Xorth  ;  nor  would 
it  take  them  much  longer  to  surpass  the  latter,  which  is 
the  most  vigorous  and  honorable  rival  that  they  have  in 
the  world.  Three  quarters  of  a  century  hence,  if  slavery 
is  abolished  within  the  next  ten  years,  as  it  ought  to  be, 
the  South  will,  we  believe,  be  as  much  greater  than  the 
North,  as  the  North  is  now  greater  than  the  South.  Three 
quarters  of  a  century  hence,  if  the  South  retains  slavery, 
which  God  forbid  !  she  will  be  to  the  North  much  the 
same  that  Poland  is  to  Russia,  that  Cuba  is  to  Spain,  or 
that  Ireland  is  to  England. 

AVliat  we  want  and  must  have,  as  the  only  sure  means 
of  attaining  to  a  position  worthy  of  Sovereign  States  in 
this  eminently  progressive  and  utilitarian  age,  is  an  ener- 
getic, intelligent,  enterprising,  virtuous,  and  unshackled 
population  ;  an  untrammelcd  press,  and  the  Freedom  of 
Speech.  For  ourselves,  as  white  people,  and  for  the  ne 
groes  and  other  persons  of  whatever  color  or  condition, 
we  demand  all  the  rights,  interests  and  prerogatives,  that 
are  cruarantiod  to  corresponding  classes  of  mankind  in  the 
North,  in  England,  in  France,  in  Germany,  or  in  any  other 
civilized  and  enlightened  country.  Any  proposition  that 
may  be  offered  co  iceding  less  than  this  demand,  will  be 
prompth  and  dis  aiufully  rejected. 


164  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOUSHED. 

Speaking  of  the  non-slaveh  elders  of  the  South,  George 
M.  Weston,  a  zealous  co-laboi  er  in  the  cause  of  Freedom, 
says  : — 

'•  The  non-slaveholdhig  whites  of  the  South,  being  not  less 
than  seven-tenths  of  the  whole  number  of  whites,  would  seem 
to  be  entitled  to  some  enquiry  into  their  actual  condition;  and 
especially,  as  they  have  no  real  political  weight  or  consideration 
in  the  country,  and  little  opportunity  to  speak  for  themselves. 
I  have  been  for  twenty  years  a  reader  of  Southern  newspapers, 
and  a  reader  and  hearer  of  Congressional  debates  ;  but,  in  all 
that  time,  I  do  not  recollect  ever  to  have  seen  or  heard  these 
non-slaveholding  whites  referred  to  by  Southern  '  gentlemen,'  as 
constituting  any  part  of  what  they  call  '  the  South?  "When  the 
rights  of  the  South,  or  its  wrongs,  or  its  policy,  or  its  interests, 
or  its  institutions,  are  spoken  of,  reference  is  always  intended  to 
the  rights,  wrongs,  policy,  interests,  and  institutions  of  the  three 
hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  slaveholders.  Nobody  gets 
into  Congress  from  the  South  but  by  their  direction  ;  nobody 
speaks  at  "Washington  for  any  Southern  interest  except  theirs. 
Yet  there  is,  at  the  South,  quite  another  interest  than  theirs  ; 
embracing  from  two  to  three  times  as  many  white  people ;  and, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  entitled  to  the  deepest  sympathy  and 
commiseration,  in  view  of  the  material,  intellectual,  and  moral 
privations  to  which  it  has  been  subjected,  the  degradation  to 
which  it  has  already  been  reduced,  and  the  still  more  fearful 
degradation  with  which  it  is  threatened  by  the  inevitable  opera- 
tion of  existing  causes  and  influences." 

The  following  extract,  from  a  paper  on  "  Domestic 
Manufactures  in  the  South  and  West,"  published  by  M. 
Tarver,  of  Missouri,  may  be  appropriately  introduced  in 
this  connection  : — 

"  The  non-slaveholders  possess,  generally,  but  very  small  means, 
and  the  land  which  they  possess  is  almost  universally  poor,  and 
60  sterile  that  a  scanty  subsistence  is  all  that  can  be  derived  from 


now    SIJkVF.RY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  165 

its  cultivation  ;  and  the  more  fertile  soil,  beinj;  in  the  pcesession 
of  the  slavelioUlers,  must  ever  remain  out  of  the  power  of  those 
who  have  none.  This  state  of  things  is  a  great  drawback,  and 
bears  heavily  upon  and  depresses  the  moral  energies  of  the 
poorer  classes.  The  acquisition  of  a  respectable  position  in  the 
scale  of  wealth  appears  so  difficult,  that  they  decline  the  hopeless 
pursuit,  and  many  of  them  settle  down  into  habits  of  idleness,  and 
become  the  almost  passive  subjects  of  all  its  consequences.  And 
I  lament  to  say  that  I  have  observed  of  late  years,  that  an  evi- 
dent deterioration  is  taking  place  in  this  part  of  the  population, 
the  younger  portion  of  it  being  less  educated,  less  industrious, 
and  in  every  point  of  view  less  respectable  than  their  ancestors.'- 

Equally  worthy  of  attention  is  the  testimony  of  Gov. 
Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,  who  says  : — 

"  According  to  the  best  calculation,  which,  in  the  absence  of 
statistic  facts,  can  be  made,  it  is  believed,  that  of  the  three  hun- 
dred thousand  white  inhabitants  of  South  Carolina,  there  are  not 
less  than  fifty  thousand  whose  industry,  such  as  it  is,  and  com- 
pensf.ted  as  it  is,  is  not,  in  the  present  condition  of  things,  and 
does  not  promise  to  be  hereafter,  adequate  to  procure  them, 
honestly,  such  a  support  as  every  white  person  is,  and  feels  him- 
self entitled  to.  And  this,  next  to  emigration,  is,  perhaps,  the 
heaviest  of  the  weights  that  press  upon  the  springs  of  our  pros- 
perity. Most  of  these  now  follow  agricultural  pursuits,  in  fee- 
ble, yet  injurious  competition  with  slave  labor.  Some,  perhaps, 
not  more  from  inclination,  than  from  the  want  of  due  encourage- 
ment, can  scarcely  be  said  to  work  at  all.  They  obtain  a  preca- 
rious subsistence,  by  occasional  jobs,  by  hunting,  by  fishing, 
sometimes  by  plundering  fields  or  folds,  and  too  often  by  what  is, 
in  its  effects,  far  worse — trading  with  slaves,  and  seducing  them 
to  plunder  for  their  benefit." 

Conjoined  with  the  sundry  plain  straightforward  facts 
whir  h  have  issuei*.  from  our  own  pen,  these  extracts  show 
con    usively   that   immediate   and   independent  political 


166  HOW    SLAVERY    .AN    LE   ABOUSHED. 

action  on  the  part  of  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the 
South,  is,  with  them,  a  matter,  not  only  of  positive  duty, 
but  also  of  the  utmost  importance.  As  yet,  it  is  in  their 
power  to  rescue  the  South  from  the  gulf  of  shame  and 
guilt,  into  which  slavery  has  plunged  her  ;  but  if  they  do 
not  soon  arouse  themselves  from  their  apathy,  this  power 
will  be  wrenched  from  them,  and  then,  unable  to  resist  the 
strong  arm  of  the  oppressor,  they  will  be  completely  de- 
graded to  a  social  and  political  level  with  the  negroes, 
whose  condition  of  servitude  will,  in  the  meantime,  be- 
come far  more  abject  and  forlorn  than  it  is  now. 

Tn  addition  to  the  reasons  which  we  have  already  as- 
signed why  no  slavocrat  should,  in  the  future,  be  elected 
to  any  office  whatever,  there  are  others  that  deserve  to  be 
carefully  considered.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the 
illbreeding  and  the  ruffianism  of  slaveholding  officials. 
Tedious  indeed  would  be  the  task  to  enumerate  all  the 
homicides,  duels,  assaults  and  batteries,  and  other  crimes, 
of  which  they  are  the  authors  in  the  course  of  a  single 
year.  To  the  general  reader  their  career  at  the  seat  of 
government  is  well  known  ;  there,  on  frequent  occasions, 
choking  with  rage  at  seeing  their  wretched  sophistries 
scattered  to  the  winds  by  the  sound,  logical  reasoning  of 
the  champions  of  Freedom,  they  have  overstepped  the 
bounds  of  common  decency,  vacated  the  chair  of  honora- 
ble controversy,  and,  in  the  most  brutal  and  cowardly 
manner,  assailed  their  unarmed  opponents  with  bludgeons, 
bowie  knives  and  pistols.  Compared  with  some  of  their 
barbarism?  it  home,  however,  their  frenzied  onslaughts  at 
tlie  national  C-^^ital  have  been  but  the  simplest  breaches 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  161 

ol  civil  deportment ;  and  it  is  only  for  tlie  purpose  of 
a^oidin^  personalities  that  we  now  refrain  from  divulging 
a  few  instances  of  the  unparalleled  atrocities  wliich  they 
have  perpetrated  in  legislative  halls  South  of  the  Poto- 
mac. Nor  is  it  alone  in  the  national  and  State  legisla- 
tures that  they  substitute  brute  force  for  genteel  behavior 
and  acuteness  of  intellect.  Neither  court-houses  nor  pub- 
lic streets,  hotels  nor  private  dwellings,  rum-holes  nor 
law-offices,  are  held  sacred  from  their  murderous  conflicts. 
About  certain  silly  abstractions  that  no  practical  business 
man  ever  allows  to  occupy  his  time  or  attention,  they  are 
eternally  wrangling  ;  and  thus  it  is  that  rencounters, 
duels,  homicides,  and  other  demonstrations  of  personal 
violence,  have  become  so  popular  in  all  slaveholding  com- 
munities. A  few  years  of  entire  freedom  from  the  cares 
and  perplexities  of  public  life,  would,  we  have  no  doubt, 
greatly  improve  both  their  manners  and  their  morals  ;  and 
we  suggest  that  it  is  a  Christian  duty,  which  devolves  on 
the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  to  disrobe  them  of  the 
mantle  of  office,  which  they  have  so  long  worn  with  dis- 
grace to  themselves,  injustice  to  their  constituents,  and 
ruin  to  their  country. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  such  men  as  Botts,  Stuart,  and 
Macfarland  of  Virginia  ;  of  Raj-nor,  Morehead,  Miller, 
Stanly,  Graves,  and  Graham  of  North  Carolina  ;  of  Davis 
and  Hoffman  of  Maryland  ;  of  Blair  and  Benton  of  Mis- 
souri ;  of  the  Marshalls  of  Kentucky  ;  and  of  Etheridge  of 
Tennessee  ?  All  these  gentlemen,  and  many  others  of  the 
same  school,  entertain,  we  believe,  sentiments  similar  to 
those  that  were  entertained  by  tiie  immortal  Fathers  of  the 


168  HOW   SLAVERY   CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

Republic — that  slavery  is  a  great  moral,  social,  civil,  and 
political  evil,  to  be  got  rid  of  at  the  earliest  practical  pe- 
riod— and  if  they  do,  in  order  to  secure  our  votes,  it  is  only 
necessary  for  them  to  "  have  the  courage  of  their  opinions," 
to  renounce  slavery,  and  to  come  out  frankly,  fairly  anJ 
squarely,  in  favor  of  freedom.  To  neither  of  these  patri- 
otic sons  of  the  South,  nor  to  any  one  of  the  class  to  which 
they  belong,  would  we  give  any  offence  whatever.  In  our 
strictures  on  the  criminality  of  pro-slavery  demagogues 
we  have  had  heretofore,  and  shall  have  hereafter,  no  sort 
of  reference  to  any  respectable  slaveholder — by  which  we 
mean,  any  slaveholder  who  admits  the  injustice  and  inhu- 
manity of  slavery,  and  who  is  not  averse  to  the  discussion 
of  measures  for  its  speedy  and  total  extinction.  Such 
slaveholders  are  virtually  on  our  side,  that  is,  on  the  side 
of  the  non-slaveholding  whites,  with  whom  they  may  very 
properly  be  classified.  On  this  point,  once  for  all,  we  desire 
to  be  distinctly  understood  ;  for  it  would  be  manifestly  un- 
just not  to  discriminate  between  the  anti-slavery  proprie- 
tor who  owns  slaves  by  the  law  of  entailment,  and  the  pro- 
slavery  proprietor  who  engages  in  the  traffic  and  becomes 
an  aider  and  abettor  of  the  institution  from  sheer  turpitude 
of  heart ;  hence  the  propriety  of  this  special  disclaimer. 

If  we  have  a  correct  understanding  of  the  positions 
which  they  assumed,  some  of  the  gentlemen  whose  names 
are  written  above,  gave,  during  the  last  presidential  cam- 
paign, ample  evidence  of  their  unswerving  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people,  the  non-slave- 
holding  whites  ;  and  it  is  our  unbiassed  opinion  that  a 
more  positive  truth  is  no  where  recorded  in  Holy  Writ, 


now    SLAVERY    CAN"    DE    ABOLISHED.  169 

than  Kenneth  Raynor  uttered,  when  he  said,  in  substance, 
that  the  greatest  good  that  conld  happen  to  this  country 
would  be  the  complete  overthrow  of  sUive-driving  democ- 
racy, alias  the  nigger  party,  which  has  for  its  head  and 
front  the  Ritchies  and  Wises  of  Virginia,  and  for  its  caudal 
termination  the  Butlers  and  Quatlebums  of  South  Carolina. 

And  this,  by  the  way,  is  a  fit  occasion  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact,  that  slave-driving  Democrats  have  been  the 
perpetrators  of  almost  every  brutal  outrage  that  ever  dis- 
graced our  halls  of  legislation.  Of  countless  instances  of 
assault  and  battery,  affrays,  and  fatal  rencounters,  that 
have  occurred  in  the  court-houses,  capitols,  and  other  pub- 
lic buildings  in  the  Southern  States,  we  feel  safe  in  say- 
ir.g  that  the  aggressor,  in  at  least  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
has  been  a  negro-nursed  adherent  of  modern,  miscalled 
democracy.  So,  too,  the  challenger  to  almost  every  duel 
has  been  an  abandoned  wretch,  who,  on  many  occasions 
during  infancy,  sucked  in  the  corrupt  milk  of  slavery  from 
the  breasts  of  his  father's  sable  concubines,  and  who  has 
never  been  known  to  become  weary  of  boasting  of  a  fact 
that  invariably  impressed  itself  on  the  minds  of  his  audi- 
tors or  observers,  the  very  first  moment  they  laid  their 
eyes  upon  him,  namely,  that  he  was  a  member  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic party.  Brute  violence,  however,  can  hardl}^  be 
said  to  be  the  worst  characteristic  of  the  slave-driving 
Democrat ;  his  ignorance  and  squalidity  arc  proverbial  ; 
his  senseless  enthusiasm  is  disgusting. 

Peculiarly  illustrative  of  the  material  of  which  sham  dem- 
ocracy is  composed  was  the  vote  polled  at  the  P'ive  Points 

pricinct,  in  the  city  of  New-York,  on  the  4th  of  November, 

8 


ITO  HOW    SLAVERY    CAX    BE    ABOLIStllD. 

18" 6,  when  James  Buchanan  was  chosen  President  by  a 
min,0TUv  of  the  people.     We  will  produce  the  dgv.  js  : 

Five  Points  Prec:  ict,  New- York  City,  1856. 

Votes  cast  for  James  Buchanan ^ 574 

"     "     John  C.  Fremont 16 

"     "     Millard  Fillmore 9 

It  will  be  recollected  that  Col.  Fremont's  majority  over 
Buchanan,  in  the  State  of  New-York,  was  between  seven- 
ty-eight and  seventy-nine  thousand,  and  that  he  ran  ahead 
of  the  Fillmore  ticket  to  the  number  of  nearly  one  hundred 
and  fifty-one  thousand.  "We  have  not  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt  that  he  is  perfectly  satisfied  with  Mr.  Buchanan's 
triumph  at  the  Five  Points,  which,  with  the  exception  of 
the  slave-pens  in  Southern  cities,  is,  perhaps,  the  most  vile 
and  heart-sickening  locality  in  the  United  States. 

One  of  the  most  noticeable  and  commendable  features 
of  the  last  general  election  is  this  :  almost  every  State, 
whose  inhabitants  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  free 
soH,  free  labor,  free  speech,  free  presses,  and  free  schools, 
ani  who  have,  in  consequence,  become  great  in  numbers, 
in  virtue,  in  wealth,  and  in  wisdom,  voted  for  Fremont, 
the  Republican  candidate,  who  was  pledged  to  use  his 
inJuence  for  the  extension  of  like  advantages  to  other 
parts  of  the  country.  On  the  oilier  hand,  with  a  single 
honorable  exception,  all  the  Statos  which  "have  got  to 
hating  everj^thing  with  the  prefix  Free,  from  free  negroes 
down  and  up  through  the  whole  catalogue — free  farms 
free  labor,  free  society,  free  will,  free  thinking,  free  chil 
dren,  and  free  schools,"  and  which  have  exposed  their  cit 
i^'ens  to  all  the  po  ils  of  numerical  weakness,  absolute  ig 


now    SLAVERY    CAX    BE    ADOLISnO.  Itl 

norancc,  and  hopeless  poverty,  voted  for  Buchanan,  the 
Den  ocratic  candidate,  who,  in  reply  to  the  overtures  of 
his  slave-driving  partisans,  had  signified  his  willingness 
to  pursue  a  policy  that  would  perpetuate  and  disseminate, 
without  limit,  the  multitudinous  evils  of  human  bondage 
Led  on  by  a  huckstering  politician,  whose  chief  voca 
tion,  at  all  times,  is  the  rallying  of  ragamuffins,  shoulder 
strikers,  and  liquor-house  vagabonds,  into  the  ranks  of  hi^-. 
party,  and  who,  it  is  well  known,  receives  from  the  agents 
of  the  slave  power,  regular  installments  of  money  for  this 
'fifamous  purpose,  a  Democratic  procession,  exceedingly 
"lotley  and  unrefined,  marched  through  the  streets  of  one 
)f  the  great  cities  of  the  Xorth,  little  less  than  a  fortnight 
previous  to  the  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan  to  the  Presi- 
dency ;  and  the  occasion  gave  rise,  on  the  following  day, 
to  a  communication  in  one  of  the  morning  papers,  from 
which  we  make  the  following  pertinent  extract  : 

'•  "While  the  Democratic  procession  was  passing  tlirough  the 
sireets  of  this  city,  a  few  days  since.  I  couhl  not  but  think  how 
significant  the  exultation  of  that  ignorant  multitude  was  of  the 
ferocious  triumphs  which  would  be  displayed  if  ever  false  Dem- 
ocracy should  succeed  in  throwing  the  whole  power  of  the  coun- 
try into  the  hands  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy.  It  is  melancholy  to 
think  that  every  individual  in  that  multitude,  ignorant  and  de- 
praved though  he  may  be,  foreign  perhaps  in  his  birth,  and  utterly 
unacquainted  with  the  principles  upon  which  the  welfare  of  the 
country  depends,  and  hostile  it  may  be  to  those  principles,  if  he 
does  understand  them,  is  equal  in  the  power  which  he  may  exer- 
cise by  his  vote  to  the  most  intelligent  and  upright  man  in  tne 
community. 

"Of  this,  indeed,  it  is  useless  to  complain.  AVe  enjoy  our 
freedom  with  th>  contingency  vf  its  loss  by  the  acts  of  a  numeri- 
cal njajority.     I    behooves  all  men,  therefore,  who  have  a  regard 


112  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

to  the  common  good,  to  look  carefully  at  the  influences  "which 
ma}'  pervert  the  popular  mind  ;  and  this,  I  think,  can  only  be 
done  by  guarding  against  the  corruption  of  individual  character. 
A  man  who  has  nothing  but  political  business  to  attend  to — I 
mean  the  management  of  elections — ought  to  be  shunned  by  all 
honest  men.  If  it  were  possible,  he  should  have  the  mark  of  Cain 
put  upon  him,  that  he  might  be  known  as  a  plotter  against  the 
welfare  of  his  country." 

That  less  than  three  per  cent,  of  those  who  voted  for  Col. 
Fremont,  that  only  about  Jive  per  cent,  of  those  who  gave 
their  suffrages  to  Mr.  Fillmore,  and  that  more  than  eighteen 
per  cent,  of  those  who  supported  Mr.  Buchanan,  were  per- 
sons over  one  and  twenty  years  of  age  who  could  not  read 
and  write,  are  estimates  which  we  have  no  doubt  are  not 
far  from  the  truth,  and  which,  in  the  absence  of  reliable 
statistics,  we  venture  to  give,  hoping,  by  their  publicity, 
to  draw  closer  attention  to  the  fact,  that  the  illiterate  for- 
eigners of  the  North,  and  the  unlettered  natives  of  the 
South,  were  cordially  united  in  their  suicidal  adherence  to 
the  Nigger  party.  With  few  exceptions,  all  the  intelligent 
non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  in  concert  with  the  more 
respectable  slaveholders,  voted  for  Mr.  Fillmore  ;  certain 
rigidly  patriotic  persons  of  the  former  class,  whose  hearts 
were  so  entirely  with  the  gallant  Fremont  that  they  refused 
to  vote  at  all — simply  because  they  did  not  dare  to  express 
their  preference  for  him — form  the  exceptions  to  which  we 
allude. 

Though  the  Whig,  Democratic,  and  Know-Nothing  news- 
papers, in  all  the  States,  free  and  slave,  denounced  Col. 
Fremont  as  an  intolerant  Catholic,  it  is  now  generally  con- 
ceded t  lat  be  was  nowhere  supported  by  the  peculiai 


now    Sl.AVFRY    CAN'    RE    AnOLISITED.  173 

friends  of  Pope  Pius  IX.  The  votes  polled  at  l  Ic  Fivo 
Points  jrccinct,  which  is  almost  exclusively  inhabited  by 
low  Irish  Catholics,  show  how  powerfully  the  Jesuitical 
intluence  was  '.»rou«jht  to  bear  against  him.  At  that  de- 
lectable local  ty,  as  wc  have  already  shown,  the  timid 
Sage  of  ^Mieatland  received  fivo  hundred  and  seventy- four 
votes  ;  whereas  the  dauntless  Finder  of  Empire  received 
only  sixteen. 

True  to  their  instincts  for  Freedom,  the  Germans,  gene- 
rally, voted  the  right  ticket,  and  they  will  do  it  again,  and 
continue  to  do  it.  With  the  intelligent  Protestant  element 
of  the  Fatherland  on  our  side,  wc  can  well  afford  to  dis- 
pense with  the  ignorant  Catholic  clement  of  the  Emerald 
Isle.  In  the  influences  which  they  exert  on  society,  there 
is  so  little  difference  between  Slavery,  Popery-,  and  Xegro- 
driving  Democracy,  that  we  are  not  at  all  surprised  to  sec 
them  going  hand  in  hand  in  their  diabolical  works  of  inhu- 
manity and  desolation. 

There  is,  indeed,  no  lack  of  evidence  to  show  that  the 
Democratic  party  of  to-day  is  simply  and  unreservedly  a 
sectional  Nigger  party.  On  the  loth  of  December,  1856, 
but  a  few  weeks  subsequent  to  the  appearance  of  a  scan- 
dalous message  from  an  infamous  governor  of  South  Caro- 
lina, recommending  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave 
trade,  Emerson  Etheridgc  of  Tennessee — honor  to  his 
name  ! — submitted,  in  the  House  of  Pepresentatives,  the 
following  timely  resolution  : — 

"  Resolved,  That  this  House  regard  all  suggestions  or  proposi- 
tions of  every  kind,  by  whomsoever  made,  for  a  revival  of  the 
slave  traie,  as  shocking  to  the  moral  sentiments  of  the  enlightened 


74  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

portion  of  mankind,  and  that  any  act  on  the  part  of  Congress, 
legislating  for,  conniving  at,  or  legalizing  that  horrid  and  inhuman 
traffic,  would  justly  subject  the  United  States  to  the  reproach  and 
execration  of  all  civilized  and  Christian  people  throughout  the 
world." 

Who  voted  for  this  resolution  ?  and  who  voted  against 
it  ?  Let  the  yeas  and  nays  answer  ;  they  are  on  record, 
and  he  who  takes  the  trouble  to  examine  them  will  find 
that  the  resolution  encountered  no  opposition  worth  men- 
tioning, except  from  members  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Scrutinize  the  yeas  and  nays  on  any  other  motion  or  reso- 
lution affecting  the  question  of  slavery,  and  the  fact  that 
a  majority  of  the  members  of  this  party  have  uniformly 
voted  for  the  retention  and  extension  of  the  "sum  of  all 
villanies/'  will  at  once  be  apparent. 

For  many  years  the  slave-driving  Democrats  of  the  South 
have  labored  most  strenuously,  both  by  day  and  by  night 
— we  regret  to  say  how  unsuccessfully — to  point  out  abo- 
lition proclivities  in  the  Whig  and  Know-Nothing  parties, 
the  latter  of  which  is  now  buried,  and  deservedly,  so  deep 
in  the  depths  of  the  dead,  that  it  is  quite  preposterous  to 
suppose  it  will  ever  see  the  light  of  resurrection. 

For  its  ti^ckling  concessions  to  the  slave  power,  the 
Whig  party  merited  defeat,  and  defeated  it  was,  and  that, 
too,  in  the  most  decisive  and  overwhelming  manner.  But 
there  is  yet  in  this  party  much  vitality,  and  if  its  friends 
will  reorganize,  detach  themselves  from  the  burden  of 
slavery,  espouse  the  cause  of  the  white  man,  and  hoist  the 
fair  flag  of  freedom,  the  time  may  come,  at  a  day  by  no 
means  remote,  when  their  hearts  will  exult  in  triumph 
over  the  ruins  of  miscalled  Democracy. 


now    SIJVVKRY    CAN'    DE    ABOLISHED.  175 

U  IS  not  too  late,  however,  for  the  Democratic  party  to 
B\  jure  to  itsch"  a  pur*?  renown  ami  au  almost  cci'tain  per- 
petuation of  its  power.  Let  it  at  once  discard  the  worship 
of  slavery,  and  do  cari-cst  battle  for  the  principles  of  free- 
dom, and  it  will  live  victoriously  to  a  period  far  in  the 
future.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  does  not  soon  repudiate 
the  fatal  heresies  which  it  has  incorporated  into  its  creed, 
its  doom  will  be  inevitable.  Until  the  black  flag  entirely 
disappears  from  its  array,  we  warn  the  non-slaveholders 
of  the  South  to  repulse  and  keep  it  at  a  distance,  as  they 
would  the  emblazoned  skull  and  cross-bones  that  flout 
them  from  the  flag  of  the  pirate. 

With  regard  to  the  sophistical  reasoning  which  teaches 
that  abolitionists,  before  abolishing  slavery,  should  com- 
pensate the  slaveholders  for  all  or  any  number  of  the  ne- 
groes in  their  possession,  we  have,  perhaps,  said  quite 
enough  ;  but  wishing  to  brace  our  arguments,  in  every  im- 
portant particular,  with  unequivocal  testimony  from  men 
whom  we  are  accustomed  to  regard  as  models  of  political 
sagacity  and  integrity — from  Southern  men  as  far  as  pos- 
sible— we  herewith  present  an  extract  from  a  speech  de- 
livered in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  January  20, 
1832,  by  Charles  James  Faulkner,  whose  sentiments,  as 
then  and  there  expressed,  can  hardly  fail  to  find  a  re- 
sponse in  the  heart  of  every  intelligent,  upright  man  : — 

••  But,  Sir,  it  is  said  that  society  havinp;  conferred  tliis  property 
on  the  slaveholder,  it  cannot  now  take  it  from  liim  without  an 
adequate  compensation,  by  which  is  meant  full  value.  I  may  be 
singular  in  the  opinion,  but  I  defy  the  legal  research  of  the  House 
to  poinfc  me  to  a  principle  recognized  by  the  aw,  even  in  the  or- 
dina'-y  course  of  it*  adjudicat'ons,  where  the  community  pays 


ItG  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOUSHED. 

for  J  ropertj  which  is  removed  or  destroyed  because  t  is  a  nui- 
sance, and  found  injurious  to  that  societ3\  There  is,  I  humbly 
apprehend,  no  such  principle.  There  is  no  obligation  upon 
society  to  continue  your  right  one  moment  after  it  becomes  in- 
jurious to  the  best  interests  of  society ;  nor  to  compensate  you 
for  the  loss  of  that,  the  deprivation  of  which  is  demanded  by 
the  safety  of  the  State,  and  in  which  general  benefit  you  partici- 
pate as  members  of  the  community.  Sir,  there  is  to  my  mind  a 
manifest  distinction  between  condemning  private  property  to  be 
applied  to  some  beneficial  public  purpose,  and  condemning  or  re- 
moving private  property  which  is  ascertained  to  be  a  positive 
wrong  to  society.  It  is  a  distinction  which  pervades  the  whole 
genius  of  the  law ;  and  is  founded  upon  the  idea,  that  an}"  man 
who  holds  property  injurious  to  the  peace  of  that  society  of 
which  he  is  a  member,  thereby  violates  the  condition  upoa  the 
observance  of  which  his  right  to  the  property  is  alone  guaran- 
tied. For  property  of  the  first  class  condemned,  there  ought  to 
be  compensation ;  but  for  property  of  the  latter  class,  none  can 
be  demanded  upon  principle,  none  accorded  as  matter  of  right. 

'•'  It  is  conceded  that,  at  this  precise  moment  of  our  legislation, 
slaves  are  injurious  to  the  interests  and  threaten  the  subversion 
and  niin  of  this  Commonwealth.  Their  present  number,  their 
increasing  number,  all  admonish  us  of  this.  In  different  terms, 
and  in  more  measured  language,  the  same  fact  has  bean  conceded 
by  all  who  have  yet  addressed  this  House.  ^  Something  must  be 
done.J  emphatically  exclaimed  the  gentleman  from  Dinwiddie  ; 
and  I  thought  I  could  perceive  a  response  to  that  declaration,  in 
the  countenance  of  a  large  majority  of  this  body.  And  why  must 
something  be  done  ?  Because  if  not,  sa3"s  the  gentleman  from 
Campbell,  the  throats  of  all  the  white  people  of  Virginia  will  be 
cut.  No,  says  the  gentleman  from  Dinwiddie — '  The  whites  can- 
not be  conquered — the  throats  of  the  hlacka  wili  be  cut.'  It  is  a 
trifling  difference,  to  be  sure.  Sir,  and  matters  not  to  the  argu- 
ment. For  the  fact  is  conceded,  that  one  race  or  the  other  must 
be  exterminated. 

'"Sir,  such  being  the  actual  condition  of  this  Commonwealth, 
I  ask  if  W3  would  not  be  justified  now,  supposing  all  considera- 
tions of  po  icy  and  hurt.anity  concurred  without  e"^,n  a  moment's 


HOW    SL-WFRY    CAN    BE    AROLI^;ITE^.  HT 

del IV,  in  staving  ofT  this  appalling  and  ovcrwlielniing  calamity  ? 
Sir,  if  this  iinnK-nsc  negro  population  wore  now  in  amis,  gather- 
ing into  black  and  formidable  masses  of  attack,  would  that  man 
be  listened  to,  who  spoke  about  property,  who  prayed  you  not 
to  direct  your  artillery  to  such  or  such  a  point,  for  you  would  dc 
stroy  some  of  hitf  property?  Sir,  to  the  eye  of  the  Statesman, 
as  to  the  eye  of  Omniscience,  dangers  pressing,  and  dangers  that 
must  riccessurili/  press,  are  alike  present.  AVith  a  single  glance 
he  embraces  Virginia  now,  with  the  elements  of  destruction  re- 
posing quietly  upon  her  bosom,  and  Virginia  is  lighted  from  one 
extremity  to  the  other  with  the  torch  of  servile  insurrection  and 
massacre.  It  is  not  sufficient  for  him  that  the  match  is  not  yet 
a^nplied.  It  is  enough  that  the  magazine  is  open,  and  the  match 
will  shortly  be  applied. 

'•Sir,  it  is  true  in  national  as  it  is  in  private  contracts,  that  loss 
and  injury  to  one  party  may  constitute  as  fair  a  consideration  as 
gain  to  the  other.  Does  the  slaveholder,  while  he  is  enjoying 
his  slaves,  reflect  upon  the  deep  injury  and  incalculable  loss 
which  the  possession  of  that  property  inflicts  upon  the  true  in- 
terests of  the  country  ?  Slavery,  it  is  admitted,  is  an  evil — it  is 
an  institution  which  presses  heavily  against  the  best  interests  of 
the  State.  It  banishes  free  white  labor,  it  exterminates  the  me- 
chanic, the  artisan,  the  manufacturer.  It  deprives  them  of  occu- 
pation. It  deprives  them  of  bread.  It  converts  the  energy  of  a 
community  into  indolence,  its  power  into  imbecility,  itscCQciency 
into  weakness.  Sir,  being  tlius  injurious,  have  we  not  a  right  to 
demand  its  extermination?  shall  society  suffer,  that  the  slave- 
holder may  continue  to  gather  his  crop  of  human  flesh?  What 
is  his  mere  pecuniary  claim,  compared  with  the  great  interests  of 
the  common  weal?  Must  the  country  languish,  droop,  die,  that 
the  slaveholder  may  flourish?  Shall  all  interests  be  subservient 
to  one — all  rights  subordinate  to  those  of  the  slaveholder  ?  Has 
not  the  mechanic,  have  not  the  middle  classes  their  rights — rights 
incompatible  witli  the  existence  of  slavery  ? 

''Sir,  so  great  and  overshadowing  arc  the  evils  of  slavery — so 
sensibly  arc  they  felt  by  those  who  have  traced  the  causes  of  our 
national  decline — so  perceptible  is  the  poisonous  operation  of  its 
princijles  in  the  va  'cd  and  diversified  interests  of  this  Common- 


1T8  now    SLAVERY    CAN    HE    AHOLISIIEI . 

wealth,  that  all,  whose  minds  are  not  warped  bj  prejudice  or  in- 
terest, must  admit  that  the  disease  has  now  assumed  that  mortal 
tendency,  as  to  justify  the  application  of  any  remedy  which,  un- 
der the  great  law  of  State  necessity,  we  might  consider  advisa- 
ble." 

From  the  abstract  of  our  plan  for  the  abolition  of  sla- 
very, it  will  be  perceived  that,  so  far  from  allowing  slave- 
holders any  compensation  for  their  slaves,  we  are,  and 
we  think  justly,  in  favor  of  imposing  on  them  a  tax  of 
sixty  dollars  for  each  and  every  negro  now  in  their  pos- 
session, as  also  for  each  and  every  one  that  shall  be  born 
to  them  between  now  and  the  4th  of  July,  1863  ;  after 
which  time,  we  propose  that  they  shall  be  taxed  forty  dol- 
lars per  annum,  annually,  for  every  person  by  them  held 
in  slavery,  without  regard  to  age,  sex,  color,  or  condition 
— ^the  money,  in  both  instances,  to  be  used  for  the  sole 
advantage  of  the  slaves.  As  an  addendum  to  this  propo- 
sition, we  would  say  that,  in  our  opinion,  if  slavery  is  not 
totally  abolished  by  the  year  1869,  the  annual  tax  ought 
to  be  increased  from  forty  to  one  hundred  dollars  ;  and 
furthermore,  that  if  the  institution  does  not  then  almost 
immediately  disappear  under  the  onus  of  this  increased 
taxation,  the  tax  ought  in  the  course  of  one  or  two  years 
thereafter,  to  be  augmented  to  such  a  degree  as  will,  in 
harmony  with  other  measures,  prove  an  infallible  death- 
blow to  slavery  on  or  before  the  4th  of  July,  1876. 

At  once  let  the  good  and  true  men  of  this  country,  the 
patriot  sons  of  the  patriot  fathers,  determine  that  the  sun 
which  rises  to  celebrate  the  centennial  anniversary  of  our 
national  independence,  shall  not  set  on  the  head  of  any 
filav*  within  the  limits  of  our  Republic.     Will  not  the 


now    SILVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  179 

ncnr^iavcholdcrs  of  the  North,  of  the  South,  of  the  East, 
aud  cf  the  West,  heartily,  unanimously  sanction  this  pro- 
position ?  Will  it  not  be  cheerfully  indorsed  by  many  of 
the  slaveUilders  themselves?  Will  any  rc^pedahle  man 
enter  a  protest  a<j'iinst  it  ?  On  the  4th  of  July,  187G — 
sooner,  if  we  can — let  us  make  good,  at  least  so  far  as  we 
are  concerned,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
was  proclaimed  in  Thiladelphia  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776 
— that  "  all  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  rights  ;  that  among  these,  are  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;  that  to  secure  these  rights, 
governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed  ;  that 
whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  destructive 
of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to 
abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its 
foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organizing  its  powers 
in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect 
their  safety  and  happiness."  In  purging  our  land  of  the 
iniquity  of  negro  slavery,  we  will  only  be  carrying  on  the 
great  work  that  was  so  successfully  commenced  by  our 
noble  sires  of  the  Revolution  ;  some  future  generation 
may  possibly  complete  the  work  by  annulling  the  last  and 
least  form  of  oppression. 

To  turn  the  slaves  away  from  their  present  homes — - 
away  from  all  the  property  and  means  of  support  which 
their  labor  has  mainly  produced,  would  be  unpardonably 
cruel — exceedingly  unjust.  Still  more  cruel  and  unjust 
would  it  be,  ho  wever,  to  the  non-slaveholding  whites  no 
less  than  i\  the  icgroes,  to  grant  further  toleration  to  the 


180  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

existence  of  s  avery.  In  any  event,  come  what  will, 
transpire  wLat  may,  the  institution  must  be  abolished. 
The  evils,  if  any,  which  are  to  result  from  its  abolition, 
cannot,  by  any  manner  of  means,  be  half  as  great  as  the 
evils  which  are  certain  to  overtake  us  in  case  of  its  con 
tinuancc.  The  perpetuation  of  slavery  is  the  climax  of 
iniquity. 

Two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years  have  the  negroes 
in  America  been  held  in  inhuman  bondage.  During  the 
whole  of  this  long  period  they  have  toiled  unceasingly 
from  the  gray  of  dawn  till  the  dusk  of  eve,  for  theii 
cruel  task-masters,  who  have  rewarded  them  with  scanty 
allowances  of  the  most  inferior  qualities  of  victuals  and 
clothes,  with  heartless  separations  of  the  tenderest  ties  of 
kindred,  with  epithets,  with  scoldings,  with  execrations, 
and  with  the  lash — and,  not  unfrequently,  with  the  fatal 
bludgeon  or  the  more  deadly  weapon.  From  the  labor  of 
their  hands,  and  from  the  fruit  of  their  loins,  the  human- 
mongers  of  the  South  have  become  wealthy,  insolent,  cor- 
rupt, and  tyrannical.  In  reason  and  in  conscience  the 
slaves  might  claim  from  their  masters  a  much  larger  sum 
than  we  have  proposed  to  allow  them.  If  they  were  to 
demand  an  equal  share  of  all  the  property,  real  and  per- 
sonal, which  has  been  accumulated  or  produced  through 
their  efforts.  Heaven,  we  believe,  would  recognize  them  as 
honest  claimants. 

Elsewhere  we  have  shown,  by  just  and  liberal  estimates, 
that,  on  the  single  score  of  damages  to  lands,  the  slave- 
holders are,  at  this  moment,  indebted  to  the  non-slavehold- 
ing  whites  in  the  extraordinary  sum  of  $7,544,148,825 


now    SLAVERY    CAN    HE    ABOUSnED.  181 

Considered  in  connection  with  the  righteous  chiini  of  wages 
for  services  which  the  negroes  might  bring  against  their 
masters,  these  ligures  arc  the  heralds  of  the  significant  fact 
that,  if  strict  justice  could  be  meted  out  to  all  parties  in 
the  South,  the  slaveholders  would  not  only  be  stripped  of 
every  dollar,  but  they  would  become  in  law  as  they  are  in 
reality,  the  hopeless  debtors  of  the  myriads  of  unfortunate 
slaves,  white  and  black,  who  are  now  cringing,  and  fawn- 
ing, and  festering  around  them.  In  this  matter,  however, 
so  far  has  wrong  triumphed  over  right,  that  the  slavehold- 
ers— a  mere  handful  of  tyrants,  whose  manual  exercises 
are  wholly  comprised  in  the  use  they  make  of  instruments 
of  torture,  such  as  whips,  clubs,  bowie-knives  and  pistols 
— have,  as  the  result  of  a  series  of  acts  of  their  own  vil- 
lainous legislation,  become  the  sole  and  niggardly  propri 
etors  of  almost  every  important  item  of  Southern  wealth  ; 
not  only  do  they  own  all  the  slaves — none  of  whom  any 
really  respectable  person  cares  to  own — but  they  are  also 
in  possession  of  the  more  valuable  tracts  of  land  and  the 
appurtenances  thereto  belonging  ;  while  the  non-slavehold- 
ing  whites  and  the  negroes,  who  compose  at  least  nine- 
tenths  of  the  entire  population,  and  who  are  the  actual 
producers  of  every  article  of  merchandize,  animal,  vegetar 
ble,  and  mineral,  that  is  sold  from  the  South,  arc  most 
wickedly  despoiled  of  the  fruits  of  their  labors,  and  cast 
into  the  dismal  abodes  of  extreme  ignorance,  destitution 
and  misery. 

For  the  services  of  tlie  blacks  from  the  20th  of  August, 
1620,  up  to  the  4th  of  July,  1863 — an  interval  of  precisely 
two  hundred  and  forty-two  years  ten  months  and  fourteen 


182  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

days — their  masters,  if  unwilling,  ought,  in  our  judgment, 
to  be  compelled  to  grant  them  their  freedom,  and  to  pay 
each  and  every  c  ne  of  them  at  least  sixty  dollars  cash  in 
hand.  The  aggregate  sum  thus  raised  would  amount  to 
about  two  hundred  and  forty-five  millions  of  dollars,  which 
is  lesB  than  the  total  market  value  of  two  entire  ciops  of 
cotton — one-half  of  which  sum  would  be  amply  sufficient 
to  land  every  negro  in  this  country  on  the  coast  of  Liberia, 
whither,  if  we  had  the  power,  we  would  ship  them  all 
within  the  next  six  months.  As  a  means  of  protection 
against  the  exigencies  which  might  arise  from  a  sudden 
transition  from  their  present  homes  in  America  to  their 
future  homes  in  Africa,  and  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
them  there  to  take  the  initiatory  step  in  the  walks  of  civ- 
ilized life,  the  remainder  of  the  sum — say  about  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  millions  of  dollars — might,  very 
properly,  be  equally  distributed  amongst  them  after  their 
arrival  in  the  land  of  their  fathers. 

Dr.  James  Hall,  the  Secretary  of  the  Maryland  Coloniza- 
tion Society,  informs  us  that  the  average  cost  of  sending 
negroes  to  Liberia  does  not  exceed  thirty  dollars  each  ; 
and  it  is  his  opinion  that  arrangements  might  be  made  on 
an  extensive  plan  for  conveying  them  thither  at  an  average 
expense  of  not  more  than  twenty-five  dollars  each. 

The  American  colonization  movement,  as  now  systema- 
tized and  conducted,  is  simply  an  American  humane  farce. 
At  present  the  slaves  are  increasing  in  this  country  at  the 
rate  of  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  per  annum  ;  within 
the  last  ten  years,  as  will  appear  below,  the  American 
Colonization  Society  Las  sent  to  Liberia  less  than  five 
thousand  negroes. 


now    SIJLVERY    CAK    BE    ABOLISHET). 


183 


Em  grants  sent  to  Liberia  by  the  American  Colonization 
Society,  during  the  ten  years  ending  January  1st,  1857. 


In  1817 39 

In  1848 213 

In  1849 474 

In  1850 590 

In  ISol 279 

In  1852 568 

In  1853 583 

In  1854 783 

In  1855 207 

In  1856 544 


Total 


4280 


.  Emigrants. 


Tlie  average  of  this  total  is  precisely  four  hundred  and 
cwenty-eight,  which  may  be  said  to  be  the  number  of  ne- 
groes annually  colonized  by  the  society  ;  while  the  yearly 
increase  of  slaves,  as  previously  stated,  is  little  less  than 
one  hundred  thousand  !  Fiddlesticks  for  such  coloniza- 
tion !  Once  for  all,  within  a  reasonably  short  period,  let 
us  make  the  slaveholders  do  something  like  justice  to 
their  negroes  by  giving  each  and  every  one  of  them  his 
freedom,  and  sixty  dollars  in  current  money ;  then  let  us 
charter  all  the  ocean  steamers,  packets  and  clipper  ships 
that  can  be  had  on  liberal  terms,  and  keep  them  con- 
stantly plying  between  the  ports  of  America  and  Africa, 
until  all  slaves  shall  enjoy  freedom  in  the  land  of  their 
fathers.  Under  a  well-devised  and  properly  conducted 
system  of  operations,  but  a  few  years  would  be  required 
to  redeem  the  United  Sj'ates  from  the  monstrous  curse  of 


negro  s  avery. 


184  BJW    SLAVERY    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

Some  few  years  ago,  when  certain  ethnographical  oli- 
garchs proved  to  their  own  satisfaction  that  the  negro  was 
an  inferior  "t^'pe  of  mankind,"  they  chuckled  wonder- 
fully, and  avowed,  in  substance,  that  it  was  right  for  the 
stronger  race  to  kidnap  and  enslave  the  weaker — that  be- 
cause Nature  had  been  pleased  to  do  a  trifle  more  for  the 
Caucasian  race  than  for  the  African,  the  former,  by  virtue 
of  its  superiority,  was  perfectly  justifiable  in  holding  the 
latter  in  absolute  and  perpetual  bondage  I  No  system  of 
logic  could  be  more  antagonistic  to  the  spirit  of  true 
democracy.  It  is  probable  that  the  world  does  not  con- 
tain two  persons  who  are  exactly  alike  in  all  respects  ; 
yet  "  all  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  All  mankind  may  or  may  not  be 
the  descendants  of  Adam  and  Eve.  In  our  own  humble 
"way  of  thinking,  we  are  frank  to  confess,  we  do  not  be- 
lieve in  the  unity  of  the  races.  This  is  a  matter,  however, 
■which  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  great  question 
at  issue.  Aside  from  any  theory  concerning  the  original 
parentage  of  the  different  races  of  men,  facts,  material 
and  immaterial,  palpable  and  impalpable — facts  of  the 
eyes  and  facts  of  the  conscience — crowd  around  us  on 
every  hand,  heaping  proof  upon  proof,  that  slavery  is  a 
shame,  a  crime,  and  a  curse — a  great  moral,  social,  civil, 
and  political  evil — an  oppressive  burden  to  the  blacks, 
and  an  incalculable  injury  to  the  whites — a  stumbling- 
block  to  the  nation,  an  impediment  to  progress,  a  damper  ^ 
on  all  the  nobler  instincts,  principles,  aspirations  and  en« 
terprises  of  man,  and  a  dire  enemy  to  every  true  interest. 


now   SI^VF.RY  CAN*  Dr.    \Bor.isnED.  185 

Waiviiif^  all  other  counts,  wc  have,  -sve  think,  shown 
to  the  satisfaction  of  every  impartial  reader,  that,  as  else- 
where stated,  on  the  single  score  of  damages  to  lands,  the 
Blaveholders  are,  at  this  moment,  indebted  to  us,  the  non- 
slaveholdii  g  whites,  in  the  enormous  sum  of  nearly  seven- 
ty-six hunilred  millions  of  dollars.  What  shall  be  done 
with  this  amount  ?  It  is  just  ;  shall  payment  be  de- 
manded ?  Xo  ;  all  the  slaveholders  in  the  country  could 
not  pay  it ;  nor  shall  we  ever  ask  them  for  even  a  moiety 
of  the  amount — no,  not  even  for  a  dime,  nor  yet  for  a 
cent  ;  we  are  willing  to  forfeit  every  farthing  for  the  sake 
of  freedom  ;  for  ourselves  we  ask  no  indemnification  for 
the  past  :  we  only  demand  justice  for  the  future. 

But,  Sirs,  kniglits  of  bludgeons,  chevaliers  of  bowie- 
knives  and  pistols,  and  lords  of  the  lash,  we  are  unwill- 
ing to  allow  you  to  swindle  the  slaves  out  of  all  the  rights 
and  claims  to  which,  as  human  beings,  they  are  most 
sacredly  entitled.  Not  alone  for  ourself  as  an  individual, 
but  for  others  also — particularly  for  five  or  six  millions 
of  Southern  non-slaveholding  whites,  whom  your  iniqui- 
tous statism  has  debarred  from  almost  all  the  mental  and 
material  comforts  of  life — do  we  speak,  when  we  say,  you 
must  emancipate  your  slaves,  and  pay  each  and  every  one 
of  them  at  least  sixty  dollars  cash  in  hand.  By  doing  this, 
you  will  be  restoring  to  them  their  natural  rights,  and 
remunerating  them  at  the  rate  of  less  than  twenty-six 
cents  per  annum  for  the  long  and  cheerless  period  of  their 
servitude,  from  the  20th  of  August,  1G20,  when,  on  James 
River,  in  Virginia,  they  became  the  unhappy  slaves  of 
heartless  nr  asters.     Moreover,  by  doing  this  you  will  be 


186  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

performing'  but  a  simple  act  of  justice  to  the  non-slave 
holding  whites,  upon  whom  the  institution  of  slavery  has 
weighed  scarcely  less  heavily  than  upon  the  negroes 
themselves.  You  will  also  be  applying  a  saving  balm  to 
your  own  outraged  hearts  and  consciences,  and  your  chil- 
dren— yourselves  in  fact — freed  from  the  accursed  stain 
of  slavery,  will  become  respectable,  useful,  and  honorable 
members  of  society. 

And  now.  Sirs,  we  have  thus  laid  down  our  ultimatum. 
What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  Something  dread- 
ful, as  a  matter  of  course  I  Perhaps  you  will  dissolve 
the  Union  again.  Do  it,  if  you  dare  !  Our  motto,  and  we 
would  have  you  to  understand  it,  is  t/ie  abclUion  of  slavery, 
and  t/ie  perpetuation  of  the  American  Union.  If,  by  any  means, 
you  do  succeed  in  your  treasonable  attempts  to  take  the 
South  out  of  the  Union  to-day,  we  will  bring  her  back  to- 
morrow— if  she  goes  away  with  you,  she  will  return  with- 
out you. 

Do  not  mistake  the  meaning  of  the  last  clause  of  the 
last  sentence  ;  we  could  elucidate  it  so  thoroughly  that  no 
intelligent  person  could  fail  to  comprehend  it  ;  but,  for 
reasons  which  may  hereafter  appear,  we  forego  the  task. 

Henceforth  there  are  other  interests  to  be  consulted  in 
the  South,  aside  from  the  interests  of  negroes  and  slave- 
holders. A  profound  sense  of  duty  incites  us  to  make  the 
greatest  possible  efforts  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  ;  an 
equally  profound  sense  of  duty  calls  for  a  continuation  of 
those  efforts  until  the  very  last  foe  to  freedom  shall  have 
been  utterly  vanquished.  To  the  summons  of  the  righte- 
ous mo>'itor  within,  we  shall  endeavor  to  prove  faithful  ; 


now    SLAVERY    CAN     »E    AnOLISHED.  187 

nc  opportunity  tor  intlicting  a  morLjl  wound  in  the  side 
of  sluvory  shall  be  pennittod  to  pass  us  unimproved. 
Thus,  terror-ongendorcrs  of  the  South,  have  we  fully  and 
frankly  defined  our  position  ;  wc  have  no  modifications 
to  propose,  no  compromises  to  ofifer,  nothing  to  retract 
Frown,  Sirs,  fret,  foam,  prepare  your  weapons,  threat, 
strike,  shoot,  stab,  brin«^  on  civil  war,  dissolve  the  Union, 
nay  annihilate  the  solar  system  if  you  will — do  all  this, 
more,  less,  better,  worse,  anything — do  what  you  will, 
Sirsj,  you  can  neither  foil  nor  intimidate  us  ;  our  purpose  is 
ap  firmly  fixed  as  the  eternal  pillars  of  Heaven  ;  we  have 
determined  to  abolish  slavery,  and,  so  help  us  God,  abo- 
lish it  we  will  I  Take  this  to  bed  with  j^ou  to-nig^ht,  Sirs, 
and  think  about  it,  dream  over  it,  and  let  us  know  how 
you  fell  t<w)  orrow  mornin":. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

SOUTHERN  TESTIMONY  AGAINST  SLAVERY. 

If  it  please  tlic  reader,  let  him  forget  all  that  we  haT  '> 
written  on  the  subject  of  slavery ;  if  it  accord  with  his 
inclination,  let  him  ignore  all  that  we  may  write  hereaf- 
ter. We  seek  not  to  give  currency  to  our  peculiar  opin- 
ions ;  our  greatest  ambition,  in  these  pages,  is  to  popular- 
ize the  sayings  and  admonitions  of  wiser  and  better  men. 
Miracles,  we  believe,  are  no  longer  wrought  in  this  bede^^ 
iled  world  ;  but  if,  by  any  conceivable  or  possible  super- 
natural event,  the  great  Founders  of  the  Republic,  Wash- 
ington, Jefferson,  Henry,  and  others,  could  be  reinvested 
with  corporeal  life,  and  returned  to  the  South,  there  is 
scarcely  a  slaveholder  between  the  Potomac  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  that  would  not  burn  to  pounce 
upon  them  with  bludgeons,  bowie-knives  and  pistols  I 
Yes,  without  adding  another  word,  Washington  would  be 
molhed  for  what  he  has  already  said.  Were  Jefferson  now 
employed  as  a  professor  in  a  Southern  college,  he  would 
be  dismissed  and-driven  from  the  State,  perhaps  murdered 
before  he  reached  the  border.  If  Patrick  Henry  were  a 
bookseller  in  Alabama,  though  it  might  be  demonstrated 
beyond  the  shadow  of  a  d?ubt  that  he  had  never  boug'^i. 


SOUTIintN    TESTIMdN'Y    AHAIXFT    SLAVERY.  ISO 

sold,  received,  or  presented,  any  kind  of  literature  except 
Bibles  and  Testaments,  he  would  first  be  subjected  to  the 
ignominy  of  a  coat  of  tar  and  feathers,  and  then  limited 
to  the  option  of  unceremonious  expatriation  or  deatli. 
How  seemingly  impossible  are  these  statements,  and  yet 
how  true  1  Where  do  we  stand  ?  What  is  our  faith  ? 
Are  we  a  flock  without  a  shepherd  ?  a  people  without  a 
prophet?  a  nation  without  a  government? 

Has  the  past,  with  all  its  glittering  monuments  of 
genius  and  patriotism,  furnished  no  beacon  by  which  we 
may  direct  our  footsteps  in  the  future  ?  If  we  but  prove 
true  to  ourselves,  and  worthy  of  our  ancestry,  we  have 
nothing  to  fear  ;  our  Revolutionary  sires  have  devised  and 
bequeathed  to  us  an  almost  perfect  national  policy.  Let 
us  cherish,  and  defend,  and  build  upon,  the  fundamental 
principles  of  that  polity,  and  we  shall  most  assuredly 
reap  the  golden  fruits  of  unparalleled  power,  virtue  and 
prosperity.  Heaven  forbid  that  a  desperate  faction  of 
slaveholding  criminals  should  succeed  in  their  infamous 
endeavors  to  quench  the  spirit  of  liberty,  which  our  fore- 
fathers infused  into  those  two  sacred  charts  of  our  politi- 
cal faith,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  Oligarchal  politicians  are 
alone  responsible  for  the  continuance  of  African  slavery  in 
the  South.  For  purposes  of  self-aggrandizement,  they 
have  kept  learning  and  civilization  from  the  people  ;  they 
have  wilfully  misinterpreted  the  national  compacts,  and 
have  outraged  their  own  consciences  by  declaring  to  tlieir 
illiterate  constituents,  that  the  Founders  of  the  Republic 
were  nf  \  ab:)litioLi8ts.     When  the  dark  clouds  of  slavry. 


190  SOUTHERN   TESTIMOXY   AGAINST   SLAVERY 

error  and  ignorance  shall  have  passed  away, — and  »/.i  be 
liove  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  they  are  to  hi  diss; 
patcd, — the  freemen  of  the  South,  like  those  of  oth>'/  seo 
lions,  will  learn  the  glorious  truth,  that  inflexible  opposi- 
tion to  Human  Bondage  has  formed  one  of  the  disiin 
guishing  characteristics  of  every  really  good  or  great 
man  that  our  country  has  produced. 

The  principles,  aims  and  objects  that  actuated  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution,  are  most  graphicallly  and 
eloquently  set  forth,  in  the  following  extract  from  a 
speech  recently  delivered  by  the  Hon.  A.  H.  Cragin,  of 
New  Hampshire,  in  the  House  of  Representatives  : 

"  When  our  forefathers  reared  the  magnificent  structure  of  a 
free  Republic  in  this  "Western  land,  they  laid  its  foundations 
broad  and  deep  in  the  eternal  principles  of  right.  Its  materials 
were  all  quarried  from  the  mountain  of  truth ;  and,  as  it  rose 
majestically  before  an  astonished  world,  it  rejoiced  the  hearts  and 
hopes  of  mankind.  Tyrants  only  cursed  the  workmen  and  their 
workmanship.  Its  architecture  was  new.  It  had  no  model  in 
Grecian  or  Ivoman  history.  It  seemed  a  paragon,  let  down  from 
Heaven  to  inspire  the  hopes  of  men,  and  to  demonstrate  the  favor 
of  God  to  the  people  of  a  new  world.  The  builders  recognized 
the  rights  of  human  nature  as  universal.  Liberty,  the  great  first 
right  of  man,  they  claimed  for  'all  men,'  and  claimed  it  from 
'  God  himself.'  Upon  this  foundation  they  erected  the  temple, 
and  dedicated  it  to  Liberty,  Humanity,  Justice,  and  Equality. 
Washington  was  crowned  its  patron  saint." 

"  The  work  completed  was  the  noblest  effort  of  human  wisdom. 
But  it  was  not  perfect.  It  had  one  blemish — a  little  spot — the 
black  stain  of  slavery.  The  workmen — the  friends  of  freedom 
everywhere — deplored  this.  They  labored  long  and  prayerfully 
to  remove  this  deformity.  They  applied  all  the  skill  of  their 
art;  but  they  labored  in  vain.  Self-interest  was  too  strong  for 
patnotism  am   love  of  libert}  .     The  work  stood  still,  and  for  t 


SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVF.RY.  191 

time  it  was  iloubtful  whetlur  tlic  cxpcritnent  would  succeed.  Tho 
biot  iMUst  rori-lin,  or  the  whole  must  fail.  The  workmen  revar- 
nishcvl  their  work,  to  conceal  and  cover  up  the  stain.  Slavery 
was  recognized,  but  not  sanctioned.  The  word  slave  or  slavery 
must  not  mar  the  Constitution.  So  great  an  inconsistency  musi 
not  be  proclaimed  to  tlie  world.'' 

''  All  agreed,  at  that  time,  that  the  anomaly  should  not  increase, 
and  all  concurred  in  the  hope  and  belief  that  the  blemish  would 
gradually  disappear.  Those  noble  men  looked  forward  to  the 
time  when  slaver}'  would  be  abolished  in  this  land  of  ours.  They 
beliovcd  that  the  principles  of  liberty  were  so  dear  to  the  people, 
that  they  would  not  long  deny  to  others  what  they  claimed  for 
themselves.  They  never  dreamed  that  slavery  would  be  extended, 
but  firmly  believed  it  would  be  wholly  blotted  out.  /  challengi 
any  man  to  show  me  a  single  pati-iol  of  the  Revolution  uho  was  in 
facor  of  slacci'ij,  or  uho  advocated  its  extension.  So  universal 
was  the  sentiment  of  lib(  rty  then,  that  no  man,  North  or  South, 
could  be  found  to  justify  it.  Some  palliated  the  evil,  and  desired 
that  it  might  be  gradually  extinguished  j  but  none  contemplated 
it  as  a  permanent  institution." 

'"Liberty  was  then  the  national  g.iddcss,  worshiped  by  all  the 
people.  They  sang  of  liberty,  they  harangued  for  liberty,  they 
prayed  for  liberty,  and  they  sacrificed  for  liberty.  Slavery  was 
then  hateful.  It  was  denounced  by  all.  The  British  king  was 
condemned  for  foi.-ting  it  upon  the  Colonies.  Southern  men  were 
foremost  in  entering  their  protest  against  it.  It  was  then  every- 
where regarded  as  an  evil,  and  a  crime  against  humanity." 

The  fact  is  too  palpable  to  be  disguised,  that  slavery 
aud  slaveholders  have  always  been  a  clog  and  a  dead-weight 
upon  the  government — a  disgrace  and  a  curse  to  humanity. 
The  slavcholding  Tories  of  the  South,  particularly  of  South 
Carolina,  in  their  atrocious  hostility  to  freedom,  prolonged 
the  arduous  war  of  the  Revolution  from  two  to  three  j-ears  ; 
and  since  the  termination  of  that  momentous  struggle,  in 
which,  thanlj  Heaven,  they  were  most  signally  defeated, 


192  SOUTHERN   TESTIMOXY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

it  has  been  their  constant  aim  and  effort  to  subvert  the 
dear-bought  liberties  which  were  achieved  by  the  non- 
slavcholding  patriots. 

Non-slaveholders  of  the  South  I  up  to  the  present  period, 
neither  as  a  body,  nor  as  individuals,  have  you  ever  had 
an  independent  existence  ;  but,  if  true  to  yourselves  and 
to  the  memory  of  your  fathers,  you,  in  equal  copartnership 
with  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  North,  will  soon  become 
the  honored  rulers  and  proprietors  of  the  most  powerful, 
prosperous,  virtuous,  free,  and  peaceful  nation,  on  which 
the  sun  has  ever  shone.  Already  has  the  time  arrived  for 
you  to  decide  upon  what  basis  you  will  erect  your  political 
superstructure.  Upon  whom  will  you  depend  for  an  equi- 
table and  judicious  form  of  constitutional  government? 
Whom  will  you  designate  as  models  for  your  future  states- 
men ?  Your  choice  lies  between  the  dead  and  the  living — 
between  the  Washingtons,  the  Jeffersons  and  the  Madisons 
of  the  past,  and  the  Quattlcbums,  the  Quitmans  and  the 
Butlers  of  the  present.  We  have  chosen  ;  choose  ye, 
remembering  that  freedom  or  slavery  is  to  be  the  issue  of 
your  option. 

As  the  result  of  much  reading  and  research,  and  at  the 
expenditure  of  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  time,  labor  and 
money,  we  now  proceed  to  make  known  the  anti-slavery 
sentiments  of  those  noble  abolitionists,  the  Fathers  of  the 
Kepublic,  whose  liberal  measures  of  public  policy  have 
been  so  criminally  perverted  by  the  treacherous  advocates 
of  slavery. 

Let  us  listen,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  voice  of  him  who 


gOCTHERN   TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLA\T:RT.  193 

was  "  first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of 
liis  countrymen,"  to 

THE   VOICE    OF    WASHINGTON. 

In  a  letter  to  Jolin  F.  Mercer,  dated  September  9th, 
1780,  General  Washington  says  : — 

"  I  never  mean,  unless  some  particular  circumstances  should 
compel  me  to  it,  to  possess  another  slave  hy  purchase,  it  being 
among  my  Jirst  wuihes  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery, 
in  this  country,  may  be  abolished  by  law." 

In  a  letter  to  Robert  Morris,  dated  Mount  Vernon,  April 
12,  17SG,  he  says  :— 

"  I  can  only  say  that  there  is  not  a  man  living  who  wishes  more 
sincerely  than  I  do  to  see  a  plan  adopted  for  the  abolition  of  it. 
But  there  is  only  one  proper  and  effectual  mode  by  which  it  can 
be  accomplished,  and  that  is  by  legislative  authority  ;  and  this, 
as  far  as  my  suffrage  will  go,  shall  never  be  wanting." 

He  says,  in  a  letter 

^  To  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette — April  5th,  1783: — 
The  scheme,  my  dear  Marquis,  which  you  propose  as  a  prece- 
dent, to  encourage  the  emancipation  of  the  black  people  in  this 
country  from  the  state  of  bondage  in  which  they  are  held,  is  a 
striking  evidence  of  the  benevolence  of  your  heart.  I  shall  be 
happy  to  join  you  in  so  laudable  a  work  ;  but  will  defer  going 
into  a  detail  of  the  business  till  I  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you." 

In  another  letter  to  Lafayctto,  he  says  : — 

'•  The  benevolence  of  your  heart,  my  dear  Marquis,  is  so  con- 
Fpicuous  on  all  occasions,  that  I  never  wonder  at  any  fresh  proofs 
of  it ;  }>ut  your  late  purchase  of  an  estate  in  the  Colony  of  Cay- 
enne, with  the  view  of  emancipating  the  slaves  on  it,  is  ageneroiia 

9 


194  SODTHEKN"   TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

ard  noble  proof  of  your  humanity.  Would  to  God  a  like  spirit 
might  diffase  itself  generally  into  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this 
country." 

In  a  letter  to  Sir  John  Sinclair,  he  further  said  : — 

"  There  are  in  Pennsylvania  laws  for  the  gradual  abolition  of 
slavery,  which  neither  Virginia  nor  Maiyland  have  at  present,  but 
which  nothing  is  more  certain  than  they  must  have,  and  at  a 
period  not  remote." 

From  his  last  will  and  testament  we  make  the  following 
extract : 

'^Upon  the  decease  of  my  wife,  it  is  my  will  and  desire  that  all 
the  slaves  which  I  hold  in  my  own  ri^ht  shall  receive  their  free- 
dom. To  emancipate  them  during  her  life  would,  though  earn- 
estly wished  by  me,  be  attended  with  such  insuperable  difficulties, 
on  account  of  their  intermixture  by  marriage  with  the  dower  ne- 
groes, as  to  excite  the  most  painful  sensation,  if  not  disagreeable 
consequences,  from  the  latter,  while  both  descriptioEs  are  in  the 
occupancy  of  the  same  proprietor,  it  not  being  in  my  power,  un- 
der the  tenure  by  which  the  dower  negroes  are  held,  to  manumit 
them." 

It  is  said  that,  "  when  Mrs.  Washington  learned,  from 
the  will  of  her  deceased  husband,  that  the  only  obstacle  to 
the  immediate  perfection  of  this  provision  was  her  right 
of  dower,  she  at  once  gave  it  up,  and  the  slaves  were 
made  free."  A  man  might  possibly  concentrate  within 
himself  more  real  virtue  and  influence  than  ever  Wash- 
ington possessed,  and  yet  he  would  not  be  too  good  for 
such  a  wife. 

From  the  Father  of  his  Country,  we  now  turn  ^i  the  au- 
thor of  the  Declarati  )n  of  Indep^mdence.    We  will  listen  to 


SOUTIIERX    TEST.MOXY    Af^AlNST    SI,  IVKRV.  195 

THE    VOICE    OF    JEFFEKSOX. 

On  the  39tli  ami  40tli  pages  uf  liis   Notes  oi    Virginia, 
JelVerson  says  : — 

'•There  must  doubtless  be  an  unhappy  influence  on  the  man- 
ners of  our  people,  produced  by  the  existence  of  slavery  among 
us.  The  whole  commerce  between  master  and  slave  is  a  perpet- 
ual exercise  of  the  most  boisterous  passions — thn  most  unremit- 
ting despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  submissions  on 
the  other.  Our  children  see  this,  and  learn  to  imi^atc  itj  for 
man  is  an  imitative  animal.  Tiiis  quality  is  the  germ  of  all  edu- 
cation in  him.  From  his  cradle  to  his  grave,  he  is  learning  to 
do  what  he  sees  others  do.  If  a  parent  could  find  no  motive, 
either  in  his  philanthropy  or  his  self-love,  for  restraining  the  in- 
temperance of  passion  towards  his  slave,  it  should  alwaNS  be  a 
suflicient  one  that  his  child  is  present.  But  generally  it  is  not 
suflicient.  The  parent  storms,  the  ciiild  looks  on,  catches  thr 
lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of  smallc 
slaves,  gives  a  loose  rein  to  the  worst  of  passions  ;  and,  thu* 
nursed,  educated,  and  daily  exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but  b^ 
stamped  by  it  with  odious  peculiarities.  The  man  nmst  be  ? 
j)rodigy  who  can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  undepraved  bj* 
such  circumstances.  And  with  what  execration  should  tlv 
Statesman  be  loaded,  who.  pennitting  one  half  the  citizens  thu*- 
to  trample  on  the  rights  of  the  other,  transforms  those  into  des 
pots  and  these  into  enemies,  destroys  the  morals  of  the  one  part 
and  the  amor  patriae  of  the  other ;  for  if  a  slave  can  have  v 
country  in  this  world,  it  must  be  any  other  in  preference  to  that 
in  which  he  is  born  to  live  and  labor  for  another ;  in  which  hi 
must  look  up  the  faculties  of  his  nature,  contribute,  as  far  as  de 
pends  on  his  individual  endeavors,  to  the  evanishmeut  of  the  hu 
man  race,  or  entail  his  own  miserable  condition  on  the  endlest* 
generations  proceeding  from  him.  "With  the  morals  of  the  peo- 
ple, their  industry  also  is  destroyed  j  for,  in  a  warm  climate,  no 
man  will  labor  for  himself  who  can  make  another  labor  for  him. 
This  is  so  true,  that  of  the  proprietors  of  slaves  a  very  small  pro- 
portion, indeed,  are  ever  seen  tu  labor.     And  can  the  liberties 


19G  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLATERS 

of  a  nation  be  thought  secure,  when  we  have  remov:  d  their  only 
firm  basis — a  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  thesp 
liberties  are  of  the  gift  of  God  ?  that  they  are  not  to  be  violated 
but  with  his  wrath?  Indeed,  I  tremble  for  my  country  when  1 
reflect  that  God  is  just;  that  his  justice  cannot  sleep  forever; 
that  considering  numbers,  nature,  and  natural  means  only,  a  revo- 
lution of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situation  is  among 
possible  events  ;  that  it  may  become  probable  by  supernatural 
interference  !  The  Almighty  has  no  attribute  which  can  take 
Bide  with  us  in  such  a  contest." 

"While  Virginia  was  yet  a  Colony,  in  ltT4,  she  held  a 
Convention  to  appoint  delegates  to  attend  the  first  general 
Congress,  which  was  to  assemble,  and  did  assemble,  in 
Philadelphia,  in  September  of  the  same  year.  Before  that 
Convention,  Mr.  Jefferson  made  an  exposition  of  the  rights 
of  British  America,  in  which  he  said  : — 

"  The  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  is  the  greatest  object  of 
desire  in  these  Colonies,  where  it  was  unhappily  introduced  in 
their  infant  State.  But  previous  to  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
slaves,  it  is  necessary  to  exclude  further  importations  from  Africa. 
Yet  our  repeated  attempts  to  effect  this  by  prohibitions,  and  by 
imposing  duties  which  might  amount  to  prohibition,  have  been 
hitlicrto  defeated  b}'  his  Majesty's  negative  ;  thus  preferring  the 
immediate  advantage  of  a  few  African  corsairs  to  the  lasting  in- 
terests of  the  American  States,  and  the  rights  of  human  nature, 
deeply  wounded  by  this  infamous  practice." 

In  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
of  which  it  is  well  known  he  was  the  author,  we  find  this 
charge  against  the  King  of  Great  Britain  : — 

'•'  He  has  waged  cruel  war  against  human  nature  itself,  violating 
its  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  liberty,  in  the  persons  of  a  dis- 
tant people  who  never  offended  him.  captivating  and  carrying 
them  into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable 


SOUrnERN    TESTIMOXT    AC.WS^T    SLAVERY.  197 

death  in  their  tninsportatiou  thither.  This  piriitical  \v;uf:ire.  the 
opprobrium  of  inlidcl  powers,  is  the  warfare  of  the  Christian 
King  of  Great  Britain.  Determined  to  keep  a  market  wlierc  men 
BhouUl  be  bought  and  sold,  he  has  at  length  prostituted  liis  nega- 
tive for  suppressing  any  legislative  attempt  to  prohibit  and  re- 
strain this  execrable  commerce." 

Uear  him  further  ;  he  says  : — 

''  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  cre- 
ated equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
miolienable  rights  ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  to  secure  these  rights,  governments 
are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the 
consent  of  the  governed." 

Under  date  of  August  tth,  1185,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Price 
of  London,  he  says  : — 

"  Northward  of  the  Chesapeake  you  may  find,  here  and  there 
an  opponent  of  your  doctrine,  as  you  may  find,  here  and  there,  a 
robber  and  murderer ;  but  in  no  great  number.  Emancipation 
is  put  into  such  a  train,  that  in  a  few  years  there  will  be  no 
slaves  northward  of  Maryland.  In  Maryland  I  do  not  find  such 
a  disposition  to  begin  the  redress  of  this  enormity,  as  in  Virginia. 
This  is  the  next  State  to  which  we  may  turn  our  eyes  for  the 
interesting  spectacle  of  justice  in  conflict  with  avarice  and  op- 
pression ;  a  conflict  wherein  the  sacred  side  is  gaining  daily 
recruits  from  the  influx  into  office  of  young  men  grown  up,  and 
growing  up.  These  have  sucked  in  the  principles  of  liberty,  as 
it  were,  with  their  mother's  milk  ;  and  it  is  to  tlK'm  I  look  with 
anxiety  to  turn  the  fate  of  the  question," 

In  another  letter,  written  to  a  friend  in  1814,  he  made 
u:«e  of  the  following  emphatic  language  : — 

'•  Your  favor  of  July  3^st  was  duly  received,  and  read  with  pe- 
culiar pleasure.     The  sentiments  do  honor  to  the  head  and  heart 


198  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

of  the  writer.  Mine  on  tlu  subject  of  the  slaverj'  of  negroes 
have  long  since  been  in  the  possession  of  the  public,  and  time  has 
only  served  to  give  them  stronger  root.  The  love  of  justice  and 
the  love  of  country  plead  equally  the  cause  of  these  people,  and 
it  is  a  reproach  to  us  that  they  should  have  pleaded  it  so  long  in 


Again,  he  says  : — 

"  What  an  incomprehensible  machine  is  man  !  who  can  endure 
toil,  famine,  stripes,  imprisonment,  and  death  itself,  in  vindication 
of  his  own  liberty ;  and  the  next  moment  be  deaf  to  all  those 
motives  whose  power  supported  him  through  his  trial,  and  in- 
flict on  his  fellow  man  a  bondage,  one  hour  of  which  is  fraught 
with  more  misery  than  a£;es  of  that  which  he  rose  in  rebellion  to 
oppose." 

Throughout  the  South,  at  the  present  day,  especially 
among  slaveholders,  negroes  are  almost  invariably  spoken 
of  as  "  goods  and  chattels,"  "  property,"  "  human  cattle." 
In  our  first  quotation  from  Jefferson's  works,  we  have 
seen  that  he  spoke  of  the  blacks  as  citizens.  We  shall 
now  hear  him  speak  of  them  as  brethren.     He  says  : — - 

"  TVe  must  wait  with  patience  the  workings  of  an  overruling 
Providence,  and  hope  that  that  is  preparing  the  deliverance  of 
these  our  brethren.  When  the  measure  of  their  tears  shall  be 
full,  when  their  groans  shall  have  involved  Heaven  itself  in  dark- 
ness, doubtless  a  God  of  justice  will  awaken  to  their  distress. 
Nothing  is  more  certainly  written  in  the  Book  of  Fate,  than  that 
this  people  shall  be  free." 

In  a  letter  to  James  Heaton,  on  this  same  subject, 
dated  May  20,  1826,  only  six  weeks  before  his  death,  he 
«ays : — 

"  My  sentiments  have  bem  forty  years  before  the  public.    Had 


SOITIIFRX   TI-^TTMON-Y    AnAIX^T    SLAVERY,  109 

I  t<?pcato(l  tliotn  fort}'  times,  tlicy  would  liavc  only  become  tlio 
more  stale  and  threadbare.  Althouj^h  I  shall  not  live  to  see  them 
consummated,  they  will  not  die  with  me." 

From  the  Fatlier  of  tlic  Declaration  of  Independence,  wo 
now  turn  to  the  Father  of  the  Constitution.  We  will 
listen  to 

THE    VOICE    OF    MADISOX. 

Advocating  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  Mr.  Madison 
said  : — 

'*  The  dictates  of  humanity,  the  principles  of  the  people,  the 
national  safety  and  happiness,  and  prudent  policy,  require  it  of 
us.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  that  by  expressinj^  a  national  disapproba- 
tion of  the  trade,  we  may  destroy  it,  and  save  our  country  from 
reproaches,  and  our  posterity  from  the  imbecility  ever  attendant 
on  a  country  filled  with  slaves." 

Again,  he  says  : — 

''It  is  wrong  to  admit  into  the  Constitution  the  idea  that  thcro 
can  be  property  in  man." 

In  the  39tli  No.  of  "  The  Federalist,"  he  says  :— 

''  The  first  question  that  offers  itself  is,  whether  the  general 
form  and  aspect  of  the  government  be  strictly  Republican.  It  is 
evident  that  no  other  form  would  be  reconcilable  with  the  genius 
of  the  people  of  America,  and  with  the  fundamental  principles  of 
the  Revolution,  or  with  that  honorable  determination  which  ani- 
mates eviry  votary  of  freedom,  to  rest  all  our  political  experi- 
ments on  the  capacity  of  mankind  for  self-government," 

In  the  Federal  Convention,  he  said  . — 

"And  in  tlie  third  place,  where  slavery  exists,  the  Republican 
theory  becomes  still  more  fallacious." 


200  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

On  another  occasion,  he  says  : — 

"  TTe  have  seen  the  mere  distinction  of  color  made,  in  the 
most  enhghtened  period  of  time,  a  ground  of  the  most  oppressive 
dominion  ever  exercised  by  man  over  man." 

THE   VOICE    OF   MONROE. 

In  a  speech  in  the  Virginia  Convention,  Mr.  Monroe 
eaid  : — 

^^  We  have  found  that  this  evil  has  preyed  upon  the  very  vitals 
of  the  Union,  and  has  been  prejudicial  to  all  the  States,  in  which 
it  has  existed." 

THE    VOICE    OF   HENRY. 

The  eloquent  Patrick  Heni-y  says,  in  a  letter  dated  Jan- 
uary 18,  17t3  :— 

'•'Is  it  not  a  little  surprising  that  the  professors  of  Christianity, 
whose  chief  excellence  consists  in  softening  the  human  heart,  in 
cherishing  and  improving  its  finer  feelings,  should  encourage  a 
practice  so  totally  repugnant  to  the  first  impressions  of  right  and 
wrong  ?  What  adds  to  the  wonder  is,  that  this  abominable  prac- 
tice has  been  introduced  in  the  most  enlightened  ages.  Times 
that  seem  to  have  pretensions  to  boast  of  high  improvements  in 
the  arts  and  sciences,  and  refined  morality,  have  brought  into 
general  use,  and  guarded  by  many  laws,  a  species  of  violence  and 
tyranny  which  our  more  rude  and  barbarous,  but  more  honest 
ancestors  detested.  Is  it  not  amazing  that  at  a  time  when  the 
rights  of  humanity  are  defined  and  understood  with  precision,  in 
a  country  above  all  others  fond  of  liberty — that  in  such  an  age 
and  in  such  a  country,  we  find  men  professing  a  religion  the  most 
mild,  humane,  gentle,  and  generous,  adopting  such  a  principle,  as 
repugnant  to  humanity  as  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  Bible,  and 
destructive  to  liberty?  Every  thinking,  honest  man  rejects  it  in 
speculation.  How  free  in  practice  from  conscientious  motives ! 
Would  any  one  believe  that  I  am  master  of  slaves  of  my  own 


SOrmERN'   TESTIMONY   AGAINST   SLAVERY.  201 

purchase  ?  I  am  drawn  aloiv^  by  the  general  inconvenience  cf 
jving  here  without  them.  I  will  not.  I  cannot  justify  it.  How- 
ever culpable  my  conduct,  I  will  so  far  pay  my  devoir  to  virtue 
as  to  own  the  excellence  and  rectitude  of  her  precepts,  and  la- 
ment my  want  of  conformity  to  them.  I  believe  a  time  will 
come  when  an  opportunity  will  be  offered  to  abolish  this  lament- 
able evil.  Everything  we  can  do  is  to  improve  it.  if  it  happens 
in  our  day;  if  not,  kt  us  transmit  to  our  descendants,  together 
with  our  slaves,  a  pity  for  their  unhappy  lot,  and  an  abhorrence 
for  slavery.  If  we  cannot  reduce  this  wished-for  reformation 
to  practice,  let  us  treat  the  unhappy  victims  with  lenity.  It  is 
the  furthest  advance  we  can  make  towards  justice.  It  is  a  debt 
we  owe  to  the  purity  of  our  religion,  to  show  that  it  is  at  vari 
ance  with  that  law  which  warrants  slavery." 

A^ain,  this  great  orator  says  : — 

'•  It  would  rejoice  my  very  soul,  that  every  one  of  ray  fellow 
oeings  was  emancipated.  "We  ought  to  lament  and  deplore  the 
necessity  of  holding  our  fellow-men  in  bondage.  Believe  me  ; 
I  shall  honor  the  Quakers  for  their  noble  efforts  to  abolish 
slavery." 

TUE    VOICE    OF   RANDOLPH. 

That  cxccntric  genius,  John  Randolph,  of  Iioanoke,  in  a 
letter  to  William  Gibbons,  in  1820,  says  : — 

"  With  unfeigned  respect  and  regard,  and  as  sincere  a  depreca- 
tion on  the  extension  of  slavery  and  its  horrors,  as  any  other 
man,  be  him  whom  he  may,  I  am  your  friend,  in  the  literal  sense 
of  that  much  abused  word.  I  say  much  abused,  because  it  is  ap- 
plied to  the  leagues  of  vice  and  avarice  and  ambition,  instead 
of  good  will  toward  man  from  love  of  him  who  is  the  Prince  of 
Peace." 

While  in  Congress,  he  said  : 

'•  Sir,  I  envy  neither  the  heart  nor  the  head  of  that  man  from 
the  North  who  rises  here  ti  defend  slavery  on  principle.'' 

9* 


202  SOUTHERN   TESTTMOSV    AriATN'ST    SLAVERY. 

It  is  well  known  that  he  emancipated  all  his  negroes. 
The  following'  lines  from  his  will  are  well  worth  perusing 
and  preserving : — 

'*  I  give  to  my  slaves  their  freedom,  to  which  my  conscience 
telJs  me  they  are  justly  entitled.  It  has  a  long  time  been  a  mat- 
ter of  the  deepest  regret  to  me  that  the  circumstances  under 
which  I  inherited  them,  and  the  obstacles  thrown  in  the  way  by 
the  laws  of  the  land,  have  prevented  my  emancipating  them  in 
my  life-time,  which  it  is  my  full  intention  to  do  in  case  I  can 
accomplish  it." 

THOMAS   M.    RANDOLPH. 

In  an  address  to  the  Virginia  Legislature,  in  1820,  Gov. 
Randolph  said : — 

"  "We  have  been  far  outstripped  by  States  to  whom  nature  has 
been  far  less  bountiful.  It  is  painful  to  consider  what  might 
have  been,  under  other  circumstances,  the  amount  of  general 
wealth  in  Virginia." 

THOMAS   JEFFERSON   RANDOLPH. 

In  1832,  Mr.  Randolph,  of  Albemarle,  in  the  Legislature 
of  Virginia,  used  the  following  most  graphic  and  emphatic 
language : — 

"  I  agree  with  gentlemen  in  the  necessity  of  arming  the  State 
for  internal  defence.  I  will  unite  with  them  in  any  effort  to  re- 
store confidence  to  the  public  mind,  and  to  conduce  to  the  sense 
of  the  safety  of  our  wives  and  our  children.  Yet,  Sir.  I  must 
ask  upon  whom  is  to  fall  the  burden  of  this  defence  ?  Not  upon 
the  lordly  masters  of  their  hundred  slaves,  who  will  never  turn 
out  except  to  retire  with  their  families  when  danger  threatens. 
No,  Sir  •  it  is  to  fall  upon  the  less  wealthy  class  of  our  citizens. 


SOITRERN    TF.STIMOXY    AGAINST    SLAVERY.  203 

chiefly  upon  the  non-slaveholder.  I  have  known  patrols  turned 
out  when  there  was  not  a  slaveholder  among  them ;  and  this  is 
the  practice  of  the  country.  I  have  slept  in  times  of  alarm  quiet 
in  bod,  without  having  a  thought  of  care,  while  these  individuals, 
owning  none  of  this  property  themselves,  were  patrolling  under 
a  C(»uipulsory  process,  for  a  pittance  of  seventy-five  cents  per 
twelve  hours,  the  very  curtilage  of  my  house,  and  guarding  that 
property  which  was  alike  dangerous  to  them  and  myself.  After 
all.  this  is  but  an  expedient.  As  this  population  becomes  more 
numerous,  it  becomes  less  productive.  Your  guard  must  be  in- 
creased, until  finally  its  profits  will  not  pay  for  the  expense  of 
its  subjection.  Slavery  has  the  elToct  of  lessening  the  free  popu- 
lation of  a  country. 

'•  The  gentleman  has  spoken  of  the  increase  of  the  female  slaves 
being  a  part  of  the  profit.  It  is  admitted  j  but  no  great  evil  can 
be  averted,  no  good  attained,  without  some  inconvenience.  It 
may  be  questioned  how  far  it  is  desirable  to  foster  and  encour- 
age this  branch  of  profit.  It  is  a  practice,  and  an  increasing 
practice,  in  parts  of  Virginia,  to  rear  slaves  for  market.  IIow 
can  an  honorable  mind,  a  patriot,  and  a  lover  of  his  country,  bear 
to  see  this  Ancient  Dominion,  rendered  illustrious  by  the  noble 
devotion  and  patriotism  of  her  sons  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  con- 
verted into  one  grand  menagerie,  where  men  are  to  be  reared  for 
the  market,  like  oxen  for  the  shambles  ?  Is  it  better,  is  it  not 
worse,  than  the  slave  trade — that  trade  which  enlisted  the  labor 
of  the  good  and  wise  of  every  creed,  and  every  clime,  to  abolish 
it  ?  The  trader  receives  the  slave,  a  stranger  in  language,  aspect, 
and  manners,  from  the  merchant  who  has  brought  him  from  the 
interior.  The  ties  of  father,  mother,  husband,  and  child,  have  all 
been  rent  in  twain  ;  before  he  receives  him,  his  soul  has  become 
callous.  But  here,  Sir,  individuals  whom  the  master  has  known 
from  infancy,  whom  he  has  seen  sporting  in  the  innocent  gam- 
bols of  childhood,  who  have  been  accustomed  to  look  to  him  for 
protection,  he  tears  from  the  mother's  arms  and  sells  into  a 
strange  country  among  strange  people,  subject  to  cruel  taskmas- 
ters. 

"He  has  attempted  to  justify  slavery  here,  because  it  exists  in 
Africa,  s^nd  has  stated  that  it  exists  all  over  the  world.     Upon 


204  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST   SLAVERY. 

the  same  principle,  he  could  justify  Mahometanism,  with  its  plu- 
rality of  ^yiYes,  petty  wars  for  plunder,  robbery,  and  murder,  or 
any  other  of  the  abominations  and  enormities  of  savage  tribes. 
Does  slavery  exist  in  any  part  of  civilized  Europe  ?  No,  Sir,  in 
no  part  of  it." 

PEYTON   RANDOLPH. 

On  the  20th  of  October,  1714,  vrhile  Congress  was  in 
session  in  Philadelphia,  Peyton  Kandolph,  President,  the 
following  resolution,  among  others,  was  unanimously 
adopted  : — 

"  That  we  will  neither  import  nor  purchase  any  slave  imported 
after  the  first  day  of  December  next ;  after  which  time  we  will 
wholly  discontinue  the  slave-trade,  and  will  neither  be  concerned 
in  it  ourselves,  nor  will  we  hire  our  vessels,  nor  sell  our  commo- 
dities or  manufactures,  to  those  who  are  concerned  in  it." 


EDMUND   RANDOLPH. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  contains  the  fol- 
lowing provision  :— 

"No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  another  State,  under  the 
laws  thereof,  escaping  to  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any 
law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or 
labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

To  the  studious  attention  of  those  vandals  who  contend 
that  the  above  provision  requires  the  rendition  of  fugitive 
slaves,  we  respectfully  commend  the  following  resolution, 
which,  it  will  be  observed,  was  unanimously  adopted  : — 

"On  mo^'ion  of  Mr.  Randolph,  the  word  'sei^itude'  was  struck 


SOITITF-RN'    TF.STIMOXY    AfiAIN'>r    SLAVKkV.  20,'; 

out,    and    '  service''    unanimously    inserted  —  the    formei     being 
thought  to  express  the  condition  of^ slaws,  and  the  latter  the  ob 
ligation  of  free  persons." — Madiso7i  Papers,  vol.  III.,  p.  15G9. 

Well  done  for  the  Randolphs  I 


THE    VOICE    OF    CLAY. 

Ilcnry  Clay,  whom  everybody  loved,  and  at  the  mention 
of  whose  name  the  American  heart  always  throbs  w^ith 
emotions  of  grateful  remembrance,  said,  in  an  address  be- 
fore the  Kentucky  Colonization  Society,  in  1829  : — 

"  It  is  believed  that  nowhere  in  the  farming'  portion  of  the 
United  States  would  slave-labor  be  generally  employed,  if  the 
proprietor  were  not  tempted  to  raise  slaves  by  the  high  price  of 
the  Southern  market,  which  keeps  it  up  in  his  own." 

In  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1850,  he  used  the  follow- 
ing memorable  words  : — 

'•  I  am  extremely  sorry  to  hear  the  Senator  from  Mississippi 
say  that  he  requires,  first  the  extension  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise line  to  the  Pacific,  and  also  tliat  he  is  not  satisfied  with 
that,  but  requires,  if  I  understand  him  correctl}',  a  positive  pro- 
vision for  the  admission  of  slavery  South  of  that  line.  And  now, 
Sir,  coming  from  a  slave  State,  as  I  do,  I  owe  it  to  myself,  I  owe 
it  to  truth,  I  owe  it  to  the  subject  to  say  that  no  earthly  power 
could  induce  me  to  vote  for  a  specific  measure  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  slavery  where  it  had  not  before  existed,  either  South  or 
North  of  that  line.  Coming  as  I  do  from  a  slave  State,  it  is  my 
solemn,  deliberate  and  well-matured  determination  that  no 
power,  no  earthly  power,  shah  compel  me  to  vote  for  the  posi- 
tive introduction  of  slavery  either  South  or  North  of  that  line. 
Sir  while  you  reproach,  and  justly  too,  our  British  ancestors  for 
the  introduction  of  this  institution  upon  the  continent  of  Ame- 
rica I  am,  for  one,  unwilling  that  tlie  posterity  of  the  present  in- 


206  SOUTHERN   TESTIMOXY   AGAINST    SLA.VERT. 

habitants  of  Calif  jrnia  and  of  New  Mexico,  shall  reproach  us  for 
doing  just  what  we  reproach  Great  Britain  for  doing  to  us.  If 
the  citizens  of  those  territories  choose  to  establish  slavery,  and 
if  they  come  here  with  Constitutions  establishing  slavery,  I  am 
for  admitting  them  with  such  provisions  in  their  Constitutions  ; 
but  then  it  will  be  their  own  work,  and  not  ours,  and  their  pos- 
terity will  have  to  reproach  them,  and  not  us,  for  forming  Con- 
stitutions allowing  the  institution  of  slavery  to  exist  among 
them.  These  are  my  views.  Sir,  and  I  choose  to  express  them ; 
ind  I  care  not  how  extensively  or  universally  they  are  known." 

Hear  him  further  ;  he  says  : — 

"  So  long  as  God  allows  the  vital  current  to  flow  through  my 
veins,  I  will  never,  never,  never,  by  word,  or  thought,  by  mind 
or  will,  aid  in  admitting  one  rood  of  free  territory  to  the  ever- 
lasting curse  of  humau  bondage." 

A  bumper  to  the  memory  of  noble  Harry  of  the  West  I 


CASSIUS   M.    CLAY. 

Of  the  great  number  of  good  speeches  made  by  members 
of  the  Republican  party  during  the  late  Presidential  cam- 
paigT-^  it  is,  we  believe,  pretty  generally  admitted  that  the 
bei^t  one  was  made  by  Cassius  M.  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  at 
the  Tabernacle,  in  New-York  City,  on  the  24tli  of  October, 
1856.  From  the  speech  of  that  noble  champion  of  freedom, 
then  and  there  delivered,  we  make  the  following  graphic 
extract : — 

"  If  there  are  no  manufactures,  there  is  no  commerce.  In  vain 
do  the  slaveholders  go  to  Knoxville,  to  Nashville,  to  Memphis 
and  to  Charleston,  and  resolve  that  tlr  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  these  abolition  eighteen  millicno  of  Northern  people ;  that 
they  will  build  their  own  vessels,  manufacture  their  own  goods, 
ship  their  own  products  to  foreign  countries,  and  break  down 


sorrnERN  teshmoxy  aga.-nst  slavery.  207 

New-York,  Philadelphia  and  Boston!  Again  they  rcsolrc  and 
rercsolvc,  and  yet  there  is  not  a  single  ton  more  shipped  and  not 
a  single  article  added  to  the  wealth  of  the  South.  But,  gentle- 
men, they  never  invite  sueh  men  as  I  am  to  attend  their  Conven- 
tions. They  know  that  I  would  tell  them  that  slavery  is  the  cause 
of  their  poverty,  and  that  I  will  tell  them  that  what  they  are  aim- 
ing at  is  the  dissolution  of  the  Union — that  they  may  be  prepared 
to  strike  for  tliat  whenever  the  nation  rises.  They  well  know  that 
by  slave  labor  tlie  very  propositions  which  they  make  can  never 
be  realized  ;  yet  when  we  show  these  things,  they  cry  out,  '  Oh, 
Cotton  is  King  !'  But  when  we  look  at  the  statistics,  we  find 
that  so  far  from  Cotton  being  King,  Grass  is  King.  There  are 
nine  articles  of  staple  productions  which  are  larger  than  that  of 
cotton  in  this  country." 

"  I  suppose  it  does  not  follow  because  slavery  is  endeavoring 
to  modify  the  great  dicta  of  our  fathers,  that  cotton  and  free 
labor  are  incompatible.  In  the  extreme  South,  at  New  Orleans, 
the  laboring  men — the  stevedores  and  hackmcn  on  the  levee, 
where  the  heat  is  intensified  by  the  proximity  of  the  red  brick 
buildings,  are  all  white  men,  and  they  are  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  health.  But  how  about  cotton  ?  I  am  informed  by  a  friend 
of  mine — himself  a  slaveholder,  and  therefore  good  authority — 
that  in  Northwestern  Texas,  among  the  German  settlements,  who, 
true  to  their  national  instincts,  will  not  employ  the  labor  of  a 
slave — they  produce  more  cotton  to  the  acre,  and  of  a  better 
quality,  and  selling  at  prices  from  a  cent  t(^  a  cent  and  a  half  a 
pound  higher  than  that  produced  by  slave  labor.  This  is  an  ex- 
periment that  illustrates  what  I  have  alway^  held,  that  whatever 
is  right  is  expedient." 

THE    VOICE    OF    BENTON. 

In  his  "  Thirty  Years'  View,"  Thomas  U.  Benton  says  : — 

"My  opp:>sition  to  the  extension  of  slavery  dates  further  bark 
than  1844 — forty  years  further  back  ;  and  as  this  is  a  suitable 
time  for  a  general  declaration,  and  a  sort  of  general  conscience 
delivery,  I  wi.l  say  that  my  opposition  to  it  dates  from  1804,  when 


208  SOUTHERN   TESTMOXY   AGAINST    SLATERY. 

I  was  a  student  at  la^y  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  and  studied  the 
subject  of  African  slavery  in  an  American  book — a  Virginia  book 
— Tucker's  edition  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries." 


Again,  in  a  speecli  delivered  in  St.  Louis,  on  the  3rd  of 
November,  1856,  he  says  : — 

''  I  look  at  white  people,  and  not  at  black  ones ;  I  look  to  the 
peace  and  reputation  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong.  I  look  tc 
the  peace  of  this  land — the  world's  last  hope  for  a  free  govern- 
ment on  the  earth.  One  of  the  occasions  on  which  I  saw  Henry 
Clay  rise  higher  than  I  thought  I  ever  saw  him  before,  was  when 
in  the  debate  on  the  admission  of  California,  a  dissolution  was 
apprehended  if  slavery  was  not  carried  into  this  Territory,  where 
it  never  was.  Then  Mr.  Clay,  rising,  loomed  colossally  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  as  he  rose  declaring  that  for  no 
earthly  purpose,  no  earthly  object,  could  he  carry  slavery  into 
places  where  it  did  not  exist  before.  It  was  a  great  and  proud 
day  for  Mr.  Clay,  towards  the  latter  days  of  his  life,  and  if  an  art- 
ist could  have  been  there  to  catch  his  expression  as  he  uttered 
that  sentiment,  with  its  reflex  on  his  face,  and  his  countenance 
beaming  with  firmness  of  purpose,  it  would  have  been  a  glorious 
moment  in  which  to  transmit  him  to  posterity — his  countenance 
all  alive  and  luminous  with  the  ideas  that  beat  in  his  bosom. 
That  was  a  proud  day.  I  could  have  wished  that  I  had  spoken 
the  same  words.  I  speak  them  now,  telling  you  they  were  his, 
and  adopting  them  as  my  own." 

THE   VOICE    OF   MASON. 

Colonel  Mason,  a  leading  and  distinguished  member  of 
the  Convention  that  formed  the  Constitution,  from  Virginia, 
when  the  provision  for  prohibiting  the  mportation  of 
slaves  was  under  consideration,  said  : — 

'•  The  present  question  concerns  not  the  importing  States  alone, 


SOUrnERN*   TESTIMOXT     AGAINST    SIJLVERY.  209 

but  tho  whole  Union.  Slavery  discourages  arts  and  nianufactures. 
The  poor  despise  labor  when  performed  by  slaves.  They  prevent 
the  emigration  of  whites  who  really  enrich  and  strengthen  a 
country.  They  produce  the  most  pernicious  effect  on  manners. 
Every  master  of  slaves  is  born  a  petty  tyrant.  They  bring  the 
judgment  of  Heaven  on  a  country.  As  nations  cannot  be  re- 
warded or  punished  in  the  next  world,  they  must  be  in  this.  By 
an  inevitable  chain  of  causes  and  effects,  Providence  punishes  na- 
tional sins  by  national  calamities.  He  lamented  that  some  of  our 
Eastern  brethren  liad,  from  a  lust  of  gain,  embarked  in  this  nefa- 
rious traffic.  As  to  the  States  being  in  possession  of  the  right 
to  import,  this  was  the  case  with  many  other  rights,  now  to  be 
properly  given  up.  He  held  it  essential,  in  every  point  of  view, 
that  the  General  Government  should  have  power  to  prevent  tho 
iucrease  of  slavery." 

THE   VOICE    OF   MCDOWELL. 

In  1832,  Gov.  McDowell  used  this  language  in  the  Vir- 
ginia Legislature : — 

"  Who  that  looks  to  this  unhappy  bondage  of  an  unhappy  peo- 
ple, in  the  midst  of  our  society,  and  thinks  of  its  incidents  or  is- 
sues, but  weeps  over  it  as  a  curse  as  great  upon  him  who  inflicts 
as  upon  him  who  suffers  it  ?  Sir,  you  may  place  the  slave  where 
you  please — you  may  dry  up,  to  your  uttermost,  the  fountains  of 
his  feelings,  the  springs  of  his  thought — you  may  close  upon  his 
mind  every  avenue  of  knowledge,  and  cloud  it  over  with  artificial 
night — you  may  yoke  him  to  your  labors,  as  the  ox,  which  liveth 
only  to  work  and  worketh  only  to  live — you  may  put  him  under 
any  process  which,  without  destroying  his  value  as  a  slave,  will 
debase  and  crush  him  as  a  rational  being — you  may  do  this,  and 
the  idea  that  he  was  born  to  be  free  will  survive  t  all.  It  is 
allied  to  his  hupe  of  immortality — it  is  the  etherial  part  of  his 
nature  which  oppression  cannot  rend.  It  is  a  torch  lit  up  in  hia 
soul  by  the  hand  of  Deity,  and  never  meant  to  be  eytinguished 
bj  the  hand  of  man." 


210  sournERN  testdioxy  against  slavery. 

THE    VOICE    OF   IREDELL. 

Ill  the  debates  of  the  North  Carolina  Convention,  Mr. 
Iredjll,  afterwards  a  Judge  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  said  : — 

"  When  the  entire  ahohtion  of  slavery  takes  place,  it  will  be 
an  event  which  must  be  pleasing  to  every  generous  mind,  and 
every  friend  of  human  nature." 

THE   VOICE    OF   PINKXEY. 

William  Pinkncy,  of  Maryland,  in  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates in  that  State,  in  1189,  made  several  powerful  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Here  follows 
a  brief  extract  from  one  of  his  speeches  : — 

''Iniquitous  and  most  dishonorable  to  Maryland, is  that  dreary 
system  of  partial  bondage  which  her  laws  have  hitherto  sup- 
ported with  a  solicitude  worthy  of  a  better  object,  and  her  citi- 
zens by  their  practice,  countenanced.  Founded  in  a  disgraceful 
traflSc,  to  which  tlie  parent  country  lent  its  fostering  aid,  from 
motives  of  interest,  but  which  even  she  would  have  disdained  to 
encourage,  had  England  been  the  destined  mart  of  such  inhuman 
merchandize,  its  continuance  is  as  shameful  as  its  origin. 

I  have  no  hope  that  the  stream  of  general  liberty  will  forever 
flow  unpolluted  through  the  mire  of  partial  bondage,  or  that  they 
who  have  been  habituated  to  lord  it  over  others,  will  not,  in  time, 
become  base  enough  to  let  others  lord  it  over  them.  If  they  re- 
sist, it  will  be  the  struggle  of  pride  and  selfishness,  not  of  princi- 
ple." 

THE   VOICE    OF   LEIGH. 

In  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  in  1832,  Mr.  Leigh 
Baid : — 

'I  thought,  till  very  lately  that  it  was  known  to  every  horlv 


SOlTill-UN    TrSTIMON'Y    ACAI^'ST    SI.AVERY.  211 

that,  (lurinjj:  (lie  lu'Vcliition.  and  for  many  y(>nrs  after,  the  aholi 
tion  of  slavery   w:is    a   fuvorite  topic  with  many  of  our  ablest 
Statesmen,  who  entertained  with  respect  all  the  schemes  which 
wisdom  or  injrenuit}-  could  suggest  for  its  accomplishment." 

THE    VOICE    OF    MARSnALL. 

Thomas  Marshall,  of  Fauquier,  said,  in  the  Virginia 
Legislature,  in  1832  :— 

"  "Wherefore,  then,  object  to  slavery  ?  Because  it  is  ruinous  to 
the  whites — retards  improvements,  roots  out  an  industrious  popu- 
lation, banishes  the  j'comanr}'  of  the  country — deprives  the  spin- 
ner, the  weaver,  the  smith,  the  shoemaker,  the  carpenter,  of  em- 
ployment and  support." 

THE    VOICE    OF    BOLLING. 

Philip  A.  Bulling,  of  Buckingham,  a  member  of  the  Leg- 
islature of  Virginia  in  1832,  said  : — 

'•The  time  will  come — and  it  may  be  sooner  than  many  are 
willing  to  believe — when  this  oppressed  and  degraded  race  can- 
not be  held  as  they  now  are — when  a  change  will  be  effected, 
abhorrent,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  you,  and  to  the  feelings  of  every  good 
man. 

The  wounded  adder  will  recoil,  and  sting  the  foot  that  tram- 
ples upon  it.  Tlie  day  is  f:ist  approaching,  when  those  who  op- 
pose all  action  upon  this  subject,  and,  instead  of  aiding  in  devis- 
ing some  feasible  plan  for  freeing  their  country  from  an  acknow- 
ledged curse,  cry  '  impossible,^  to  every  plan  suggested,  will  curse 
their  perverseness,  and  lament  their  folly.'' 

THE    VOICE    OF    CHANDLER. 

Mr.  Chandler,  of  Norfolk,  member  of  the  Virginia  Legis- 
lature, in  1832,  took  occasion  to  say: — 

"  It  is  admitted,  by  all  who  have  addressed  this  Ilouse,  that 


212  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY    AGAL  ST    SLAVERY. 

slavery  is  a  curse,  and  an  increasing  one.  That  it  ras  been  de- 
structive to  the  lives  of  our  citizens,  history,  with  unerring  truth, 
will  record.  That  its  future  increase  will  create  commotion,  can- 
not be  doubted." 

THE   VOICE    OF    SUMMERS. 

Mr.  Summers,  of  Kanawha,  member  of  the  Legislature 
of  Virginia,  in  1832,  said  : — 

"  The  evils  of  this  system  cannot  be  enumerated.  It  were  un- 
necessary to  attempt  it.  They  glare  upon  us  at  every  step. 
When  the  owner  looks  to  his  wasted  estate,  he  knows  and  feels 
them." 

THE    VOICE    OF    FRESTON. 

In  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  in  1832,  Mr.  Preston 
said  : — 

"  Sir,  Mr.  Jefferson,  whose  hand  drew  the  preamble  to  the 
Bill  of  Rights,  has  eloquently  remarked  that  we  had  invoked  for 
ourselves  the  benefit  of  a  principle  which  we  had  denied  to 
others.  He  saw  and  felt  that  slaves,  as  men,  were  embraced 
within  this  principle." 

THE   VOICE    OF    FREMONT. 

John  Charles  Fremont,  one  of  the  noblest  sons  of  the 
South,  says  : — 

"I  heartily  concur  in  all  movements  which  have  for  their  ob- 
ject to  repair  the  mischiefs  arising  from  the  violatiDn  of  good 
faith  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  I  am  opposed  to 
slavery  in  the  abstract,  and  upon  principles  sustained  and  made 
habitual  by  long  settled  convictions.  I  am  inflexibly  opposed 
to  its  extension  on  this  continent  beyond  its  present  limits." 

"  The  great  body  of  non-slavcholding  Freemen,  including  those 
of  the  South^  upon  whose  wvi'fare  slavery  is  an  oppression,  will 


SOUTHERN   TESTIMONT   AGAIKST    SLAVERY.  213 

discover  that  tlio  power  of  the  General  Government  over  tho 
Public  Lands  may  be  beneficially  exerted  to  advance  their  inter- 
ests, and  secure  their  independence  ,  knowing  this,  their  sufTra- 
ges  will  not  be  wanting  to  maintain  that  authority  in  the  Union, 
which  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  their  own 
liberties,  and  which  has  more  than  once  indicated  the  purpose  of 
disposing  of  the  Public  Lands  in  such  a  way  as  would  make  every 
settler  upon  them  a  freeholder." 

THE    VOICE    OF    CLAIR. 

In  an  Address  to  the  Republicans  of  Marj^land,  in  1856, 
Francis  P.  Blair  says  : — ■ 

"  In  every  aspect  in  which  slavery  among  us  can  be  considered, 
't  is  pregnant  with  difficulty.  Its  continuance  in  the  States  in 
which  it  has  taken  root  has  resulted  in  the  monopoly  of  the  soil, 
to  a  great  extent,  in  the  hands  of  the  slaveholders,  and  the  entire 
control  of  all  departments  of  the  State  Government ;  and  yet  a 
majority  of  people  in  the  slave  States  are  not  slave-owners.  This 
produces  an  anomaly  in  the  principle  of  our  free  institutions, 
which  threatens  in  time  to  bring  into  subjugation  tc  slave-own- 
ers the  great  body  of  the  free  white  population." 

THE    VOICE    OF    MAURY. 

Lieut.  Maury,  to  whom  has  been  awarded  so  much  well- 
merited  praise  in  the  world  of  science,  says  : — 

''  The  fact  must  be  obvious  to  the  far-reaching  minds  of  our 
Statesmen,  that  unless  some  means  of  relief  be  devised,  some 
channel  afforded,  by  which  the  South  can,  when  the  time  comes, 
get  rid  of  the  excess  of  her  slave  population,  she  will  be  ulti- 
mately found  with  regard  to  this  institution,  in  the  predicament 
of  the  man  with  the  wolf  by  the  ears  ;  too  dangerous  to  hold  on  any 
lon^icr,  and  equally  dangerous  to  let  go.  To  our  min<l,  the  event 
is  as  certain  to  hajtpen  as  any  event  which  dei)en(ls  on  the  con- 
tingencies of  the  futu-e.  viz. :  that  unless  means  bo  deviled  for  gra- 


214  SOUTHERN"   TESTIMONY   AGAINSl    SLAVERY. 

diiall}''  relieving  the  slave  States  from  the  vinriue  pressure  :^  this 
class  upon  them — unless  some  way  be  opened  by  which  they  may 
be  rid  of  their  surplus  black  population — the  time  will  come — it 
may  not  be  in  the  next  nor  in  the  succeeding  generation — but, 
sooner  or  later,  come  it  will,  and  come  it  must — when  the  two 
races  will  join  in  the  death  struggle  for  the  mastery." 

THE   VOICE    OF    BIRXEY. 

James  G.  Birney,  of  Kentuckj,  under  whom  the  Aboli- 
tionists first  became  a  National  Party,  and  for  whom  thej* 
voted  for  President  in  1844,  giving  him  66,304  votes,says  : 

"  We  have  so  long  practiced  injustice,  adding  to  it  hypocrisy, 
in  the  treatment  of  the  colored  race,  both  negroes  and  Indians, 
that  we  begin  to  regard  injustice  as  an  element — a  chief  element 
— the  chief  element  of  our  government.  But  no  government 
■which  admits  injustice  as  an  element  can  be  a  harmonious  one  or 
a  permanent  one.  Harmony  is  the  antagonist  of  injustice,  ever 
has  been,  and  ever  will  be  ;  that  is,  so  long  as  injustice  lasts, 
which  cannot  always  be,  for  it  is  a  lie,  a  semblance,  therefore, 
perishable.  True,  from  the  imperfection  of  man,  his  ambition 
and  selfishness,  injustice  often  finds  its  way  incidentally  into  the 
administration  of  public  aSairs.  and  maintains  its  footing  a  long 
time  before  it  is  cast  out  by  the  legitimate  elements  of  govern- 
ment." 

"Our  slave  States,  especially  the  more  southern  of  them,  in 
which  the  number  of  slaves  is  greater,  and  in  which,  of  course 
the  sentiment  of  injustice  is  stronger  than  in  the  more  northern 
ones,  are  to  be  placed  on  the  list  of  decaying  communit'es.  To  a 
philosophic  observer,  they  seem  to  be  falling  back  on  the  scale 
of  civilization.  Even  at  the  present  point  of  retrogression,  the 
cause  of  civilization  and  human  improvement  would  lose  nothing 
by  their  annihilation." 

THE    VOICE    OF    DELAWARE. 

Strong  anti-slavery  sentiment  had  become  popular  id 


sorrnERX  testimony  against  slavery.  215 

Delaware  as  early  as  1785.  AVith  Maryland  and  Missouri, 
it  may  now  be  ranked  as  a  semi-slave  State,  Mr.  MeLanc, 
a  member  of  Congress  from  this  State  in  1825,  said  : — 

"I  shall  not  imitate  the  example  of  otheii.gcntIemen  by  mak- 
ing professions  of  my  love  of  liberty  and  abhorrence  of  slavery, 
not,  however,  because  I  do  not  entertain  them.  I  am  an  enemy 
to  slavery." 

THE   VOICE    OF   MARYLAND. 

Slavery  has  little  vitality  in  Maryland.  Baltimore,  the 
greatest  city  of  the  South — greatest  because  freest — has  a 
population  of  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  souls,  and 
yet  less  than  three  thousand  of  these  are  slaves.  In  spite 
of  all  the  unjust  and  oppressive  statutes  enacted  by  the 
oligarchy,  the  non-slavelnjlders,  who  "with  the  exception 
of  a  small  number  of  slaveholding  emancipationists,  may 
in  truth  be  said  to  be  the  only  class  of  respectable  and 
patriotic  citizens  in  the  South,  have  wisely  determined 
that  their  noble  State  shall  be  freed  from  the  sin  and  the 
ehame,  the  crime  and  the  curse  of  slavery  ;  and  in  accor- 
dance with  this  determination,  long  since  formed,  they  aro 
giving  every  possible  encouragement  to  free  wOiite  labor, 
thereby,  very  properly,  rendering  the  labor  of  slaves  bitth 
unprofitable  and  disgraceful.  The  formation  of  an  AboU- 
tion  Society  in  this  State,  in  1789,  was  the  result  of  the 
influence  of  the  masterly  speeches  delivered  .'n  the  House 
of  Delegates,  by  tlie  lion.  "William  Pinkney  wliose  undy- 
ing testimony  we  have  already  placed  on  record.  Nearly 
seventy  years  ago,  this  eminent  lawyer  and  Statesman 
declared  to  lac  people  of  America,  that  if  they  did  not 


216  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

mark  out  the  bounds  of  slavery,  and  adopt  measures  for 
its  total  extinction,  it  would  finally  "  work  a  decay  of  the 
spirit  of  liberty  in  the  free  States."  Further,  he  said  that, 
"  by  the  eternal  principles  of  natural  justice,  no  master  in 
the  State  has  a  right  to  hold  his  slave  in  bondage  a  single 
hour."     In  178T,  Luther  Martin,  of  this  State,  said  : — 

"  Slavery  is  inconsistent  with  the  genius  of  republicanism,  and 
has  a  tendency  to  destroy  those  principles  on  which  it  is  sup- 
ported, as  it  lessens  the  sense  of  the  equal  rights  of  mankind, 
and  habituates  us  to  tyranny  and  oppression." 

THE    VOICE    OF    VIRGINIA. 

After  introducing  the  unreserved  and  immortal  testi- 
mony of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Henry,  and  the 
other  great  men  of  the  Old  Dominion,  against  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery,  it  may  to  some,  seem  quite  superfluous  to 
back  the  cause  of  Freedom  by  arguments  from  other  Vir- 
ginia abolitionists  ;  but  this  State,  notwithstanding  all 
her  more  modern  manners  and  inhumanity,  has  been  so 
prolific  of  just  views  and  noble  sentiments,  that  we  deem 
it  eminently  fit  and  proper  to  blazon  many  of  them  to  the 
world  as  the  redeeming  features  of  her  history.  An  Abo- 
lition Society  was  formed  in  this  State  in  11 91.  In  a  me- 
morial which  the  members  of  this  Society  presented  to 
Congress,  they  pronounced  slavery  "  not  only  an  odious 
degradation,  but  an  outrageous  violation  of  one  of  the  most 
essential  rights  of  human  nature,  and  utterly  repugnant 
to  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel."  A  Bill  of  Rights,  unan- 
innusly  agreed  upon  by  the  Virginia  Convention  of  June 
12,  1776,  holds— 


SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY  211 

"  That  all  men  are,  by  nature,  equally  free  and  independent; 

That  Goverument  is,  or  ought  to  be,  instituted  for  the  common 
benefit,  protection,  and  security,  of  the  People,  Nation,  or  Com- 
muiiit}'  ; 

That  elections  of  members  to  seive  as  reprcsentatis'cs  of  tho 
people  in  assembly  ought  to  be  free  ; 

That  all  men  having  sufficient  evidence  of  j)crmanent  common 
interest  with,  and  attachment  to,  the  community,  have  the  right 
of  suffrage,  and  cannot  be  taxed  or  deprived  of  their  property, 
for  public  uses,  without  their  own  consent  or  that  of  their  repre- 
sentatives so  elected,  nor  bound  by  any  law  to  which  they  have 
not  in  like  manner  assented,  for  the  public  good  ; 

That  the  freedom  of  the  Press  is  one  of  the  greatest  bulwarks 
of  Liberty,  and  can  never  be  restrained  but  by  despotic  Govern- 
ments ; 

That  no  free  Government  or  the  blessing  of  Liberty  can  be 
preserved  to  any  people,  but  by  a  firm  adherence  to  justice,  mod- 
eration, temperance,  frugality,  and  virtue,  and  by  a  frequent  re- 
currence to  fundamental  principles." 

The  "  Virginia  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery/* 
organized  in  1791,  addressed  Congress  in  these  words  : — 

'•Your  memorialists,  fully  aware  that  righteousness  exalteth  a 
nation,  and  that  slavery  is  not  only  an  odious  degradation,  but 
an  outrageous  violation  of  one  of  the  most  essential  rights  of  hu- 
man nature,  and  utterly  repugnant  to  the  precepts  of  the  gospel, 
which  breathes  '  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men,'  lament 
that  a  practice  so  inconsistent  with  true  polic}-  and  the  inaliena- 
ble rights  of  men.  should  subsist  in  so  enlightened  an  age,  and 
among  a  people  professing  that  all  mankind  are,  by  nature, 
equally  entitled  to  freedom." 

TUE    VOICE    OF    NORTH    CAROLINA. 

If  the  question,  slavery  or  no  slavery,  could  be  fairly  pre- 
B«.'nted  fur  the  decision  of  the  legal  voters  of  North  Caro- 
lina at  the  next  popular  election,  we  believe  at  least  two- 

10 


218  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY    AGAINST   SLAVERY. 

thirds  of  them  would  deposite  the  no  slavery  ticket.  Perhaps 
one-fourth  of  the  slaveholders  themselves  would  vote  it, 
for  the  slaveholders  in  this  State  are  more  moderate,  de- 
cent, sensible,  and  honorable,  than  the  slaveholders  in 
either  of  the  adjoining  States,  or  the  States  further  Soutli  ; 
and  we  know  that  many  of  them  are  heartily  ashamed  of 
the  vile  occupations  of  slaveholding  and  slave-breeding  in 
which  they  are  engaged,  for  we  have  the  assurance  from 
their  own  lips.  As  a  matter  of  course,  all  the  non-slave- 
holders, who  are  so  greatly  in  the  majority,  would  vote  to 
suppress  the  degrading  institution  which  has  kept  them  so 
long  in  poverty  and  ignorance,  with  the  exception  of  those 
wJio  are  complete  automatons  to  the  beck  and  call  of  their 
imperious  lords  and  masters,  the  major-generals  of  the 
oligarchy. 

How  long  shall  it  be  before  the  citizens  of  North  Caro- 
lina shall  have  the  privilege  of  expressing,  at  the  ballot- 
box,  their  true  sentiments  with  regard  to  this  vexed  ques- 
tion ?  Why  not  decide  it  at  the  next  general  .  'lection  ? 
Sooner  or  later,  it  must  and  will  be  decided — de(  ded  cor- 
rectly, too — and  the  sooner  the  better.  The  first  "southern 
State  that  abolishes  slavery  will  do  herself  an  immortal 
honor.  God  grant  that  North  Carolina  may  be  that  State, 
and  soon  1  There  is  at  least  one  plausible  reason  why 
this  good  old  State  should  be  the  first  to  move  in  this  im- 
p^stant  matter,  and  we  will  state  it.  On  the  20th  of  May, 
1775,  just  one  year  one  month  and  fourteen  days  prior  to 
the  adoption  of  the  Jeffersonian  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, by  the  Continental  Congress  in  Philadelphia,  July 
4,  1776,  *he  Mecklenburg  Declarjltion  of  Independence,  the 


SOrniERN   TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY.  210 

authorship  of  which  is  generally  attributed  to  Ephraim 
Brevard,  was  proclaimed  in  Charlotte,  Mecklenburg  county, 
North  Carolina,  and  fully  ratified  in  a  second  Convention 
of  the  people  of  said  county,  held  on  the  31st  of  the  same 
month.  And  here,  by  the  way,  we  may  remark,  that  it  is 
supposed  Mr.  Jefferson  made  use  of  this  last-mentioned 
document  as  the  basis  of  his  draft  of  the  indestructible 
title-deed  of  our  liberti(>s.  There  is  certainly  an  identical- 
ness  of  language  between  the  two  papers  that  is  well  cal- 
culated to  strengthen  this  hypothesis.  This,  however,  is 
a  controversy  about  which  we  arc  but  little  concerned. 
For  present  purposes,  it  is,  perhaps,  enough  for  us  to 
know,  that  on  the  20th  of  May,  1775,  when  transatlantic 
tyranny  and  oppression  could  no  longer  be  endured,  North 
Carolina  set  her  sister  colonies  a  most  valorous  and  praise- 
worthy example,  and  that  they  followed  it.  To  her  infa- 
mous slaveholding  sisters  of  the  South,  it  is  now  meet  that 
she  should  set  another  noble  example  of  decency,  virtue, 
and  independence.  Lot  her  at  once  inaugurate  a  policy 
of  common  justice  and  humanity — enact  a  system  of 
equitable  laws,  having  due  regard  to  the  rights  and  inter- 
ests of  all  classes  of  persons,  poor  whites,  negroes,  and 
nabobs,  and  the  surrounding  States  will  ere  long  applaud 
her  measures,  and  adopt  similar  ones  for  the  governance 
of  themselves. 

Another  reason,  and  a  cogent  one,  why  North  Carolina 
should  aspire  to  become  the  first  free  State  of  the  South  \a 
this  :  The  first  slave  State  that  makes  herself  respectable 
by  casting  out  "  the  mother  of  harlots,"  and  by  rendering 
entcTprise  and  industry  honorable,  will  immediately  rccervo 


220  SOUTHERN   TESTDIOXY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

a  large  accession  of  most  worthy  citizens  from  other  States 
in  the  Union,  and  tlms  lay  a  broad  foundation  of  permanent 
political  power  and  prosperity.  Intelligent  white  farmers 
from  the  Middle  and  New  England  States  will  flock  to  our 
more  congenial  clime,  eager  to  give  thirty  dollars  per  acre 
for  the  same  lands  that  are  now  a  drug  in  the  market  be- 
cause nobody  ^  ants  them  at  the  rate  of  five  dollars  per 
acre  ;  an  immediate  and  powerful  impetus  will  be  given 
to  commerce,  manufactures,  and  all  the  industrial  arts  ; 
science  and  literature  will  be  revived,  and  every  part  of 
the  State  will  reverberate  with  the  triumphs  of  manual 
and  intellectual  labor. 

At  this  present  time,  we  of  Xorth  Carolina  are  worth 
less  than  either  of  the  four  adjoining  States  ;  let  us  abolish 
slavery  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  regular  decade  of 
years,  and  if  our  example  is  not  speedily  followed,  we  shall, 
on  or  before  the  first  day  of  January,  1870,  be  enabled  to 
purchase  the  whole  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  inclu- 
ding, perhaps,  the  greater  part  of  Georgia,  An  exclusive 
'.ease  of  liberty  for  ten  years  would  unquestionably  make 
us  the  Empire  State  of  the  South.  But  we  have  no  dispo- 
sition to  debar  others  from  the  enjoyment  of  liberty  or  any 
other  inalienable  right ;  we  ask  no  special  favors  ;  what 
we  demand  for  ourselves  we  are  willing  to  concede  to  our 
neighbors.  Hereby  we  make  application  for  a  lease  of 
freedom  for  ten  years  ;  shall  we  have  it  ?  May  God  ena- 
ble us  to  secure  it,  as  we  believe  lie  will.  We  give  fair 
notice,  however,  that  if  we  get  it  for  ten  years,  we  shall, 
with  the  approbation  of  Heaven,  keep  it  twenty — forty — 
a  thousand  -forever  ! 


SOUTHERN'   TESTIMOXY    AfiAlN'ST    SLAVERY.  221 

We  transcribe  the  Mecklenburg  Resolutions,  wliicli,  it 
will  be  observeil,  iicknowleJg'c  the  "  inherent  and  inalien- 
able righU  of  man,"  and  "  declare  ourselves  a  free  and 
independent  people,  are,  and  of  ri<jht  ought  to  be,  a  sove- 
reign and  self-governing-  association,  under  the  control  of 
no  power  other  than  that  of  our  God,  and  the  general  go- 
vernment of  the  Congress." 

ilECKLEXBURG    DECL.\RATION    OF   IXDEPENDENCE, 

As  proclaimed  in  the  town  of  Charlotte,  North  Carolina, 
May  20th,  1775,  and  ratified  by  the  County  of  Mecklen- 
burg, in  Convention,  May  31st,  1775. 

"  I.  Resolved — That  whosoever,  directly  or  indirectly,  abetted, 
or  in  any  way,  form  or  manner,  countenanced  the  unchartered 
and  dangerous  invasion  of  our  riglits  as  claimed  by  Great  Britain, 
is  an  enemy  to  this  country,  to  America,  and  to  the  inherent  and 
inalienable  rights  of  man. 

"II.  Resolved — That  we  the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  Count}', 
do  hereby  dissolve  the  political  bands  which  have  connected  us 
to  the  mother  country,  and  hereby  absolve  ourselves  from  all 
allegiance  to  the  British  Crown,  and  abjure  all  political  connec- 
tion, contract  or  association  with  that  nation,  who  have  wantonly 
trampled  on  our  rights  and  liberties,  and  inhumanly  shed  the 
blood  of  American  patriots  at  Lexington. 

"III.  Resolved — That  we  do  hereb}'  declare  ourselves  a  free 
and  independent  people,  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  a  sovereign 
and  self-governing  association,  under  the  control  of  no  power  other 
than  that  of  our  God,  and  the  general  government  of  the  Con- 
gress ;  to  the  maintenance  of  which  independence,  we  solemnly 
pledge  to  each  other  our  nmtual  co-operation,  our  lives,  our  for- 
tunes, and  our  most  sacred  honor. 

'•  IV.  Resolved — That  as  we  now  acknowledge  the  existence  and 
rontrol  of  no  law  or  legal  officer,  civil  or  military,  within  thia 
county,  we  do  hereby  ordain  and  adopt,  as  a  rule  of  life,  all,  each, 


222  SOUTHERN'    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY, 

and  every  of  our  former  laws — wlicreiri,  nevertheless,  the  ck  wn 
of  GreatBritain  never  can  be  considered  as  holding  rights,  privi- 
leges, immunities  or  authority  therein.'- 

Had  it  not  been  for  slavery,  which,  with  all  its  other 
blighting'  and  degrading  influences,  stifles  and  subdues 
every  noble  impulse  of  the  heart,  this  consecrated  spot 
would  long  since  have  been  marked  by  an  enduring 
monument,  whose  grand  proportions  should  bear  witness 
that  the  virtues  of  a  noble  ancestry  are  gratefully  remein 
bered  by  an  emulous  and  appreciative  posterity.  Yet, 
even  as  things  are,  we  are  not  without  genuine  consola- 
tion. The  star  of  hope  and  promise  is  beginning  to  beam 
brightly  over  the  long-obscured  horizon  of  the  South  ;  and 
we  are  firm  in  the  belief,  that  freedom,  wealth,  and  mag- 
nanimity, will  soon  do  justice  to  the  memory  of  those  fear- 
less patriots,  whose  fair  fame  has  been  suffered  to  moul- 
der amidst  the  multifarious  abominations  of  slavery,  pov- 
erty, ignorance  and  grovelling  selfishness. 

Judge  Iredell's  testimony,  which  will  be  found  on  a 
preceding  page,  and  to  which  we  request  the  reader  to 
recur,  might  have  been  appropriately  introduced  under 
our  present  heading. 

In  the  Provincial  Convention  held  in  North  Carolina,  in 
August,  1714,  in  w^hich  there  were  sixty-nine  delegates, 
representing  nearly  every  county  in  the  province,  it  was — 

"  Resolved — That  we  will  not  import  any  slave  or  slaves,  or 
purchase  any  slave  or  slaves  imported  or  brought  into  the  Pro- 
vince by  others,  from  any  part  of  the  world,  after  the  first  day 
of  November  next." 

In  Iredell's  Statutes,  revised  by  Martin,  it  is  stated  that, 


SOL'THF-RX    TEsriMOXY    ACATN'.-T    SI.AVKRY.  223 

'In  North  Carolina,  no  general  law  at  all  was  passed,  ^rior  to 
toe  revolution,  declaring  who  might  be  slaves." 

That  there  is  no  Ifgil  slavery  in  the  Southern  States,  and 
that  slavery  no  where  can  be  legalized,  any  more  than 
theft,  arson  or  murder  can  be  legalized,  has  been  virtually 
admitted  by  some  of  the  most  profound  Southern  jurists 
themselves  ;  and  we  will  here  digress  so  far  as  to  furnish 
the  testimony  of  one  or  two  eminent  lawyers,  not  of  Xorth 
Carolina,  upon  this  point. 

In  the  debate  in  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1850,  on 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  objected 
to  Mr.  Dayton's  amendment,  providing  for  a  trial  by  jury, 
because,  said  he  : — 

'*  A  trial  hv  jury  nccessaril}' carries  with  it  a  trial  of  the  whole 
right,  and  a  trial  of  the  right  to  service  will  be  gone  into,  ac- 
cording to  all  the  forms  of  the  Court,  in  determining  upon  any 
other  fact.  Then,  again,  it  is  proposed,  as  a  part  of  the  proof  to 
be  adduced  at  the  hearing,  after  the  fugitive  has  been  re-captured, 
that  evidence  shall  be  brought  by  the  claimant  to  show  that  slavery 
is  established  in  the  State  from  which  the  fugitive  has  abscond- 
ed. Now  this  very  tiling,  in  a  recent  case  in  the  city  of  New- 
York,  was  required  by  one  of  the  judges  of  that  State,  which  case 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  authorities  of  Maryland,  and  against 
which  they  protested.  In  that  case  the  State  judge  went  so  far  as 
to  say  that  the  only  mode  of  proving  it  was  by  reference  to  the  Sta- 
tute book.  Such  proof  is  required  in  the  Senator's  amendment ; 
and  if  he  means  by  this  that  proof  shall  be  brought  that  slavery 
is  established  by  existing  laws,  it  is  impossible  to  comply  with 
the  requistion,  for  no  such  law  can  be  produced,  I  apprehend,  in 
any  of  thi  slave  States.  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is  a  single 
State  in  which  the  institution  is  established  by  positive  law." 

Juige  Clarke,  of  Mississippi,  says  : — 


224  SOUl'HERN   TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

"  In  this  State  the  legislature  have  considered  slaves  as  reason 
able  and  accountable  beings  j  and  it  would  be  a  stigma  upon  the 
character  of  the  State,  and  a  reproach  to  the  administration  of 
justice,  if  the  life  of  a  slave  could  be  taken  with  impunit}'-,  or  if 
he  could  be  murdered  in  cold  blood,  without  subjecting  the  olTen- 
der  to  the  highest  penalty  known  to  the  criminal  jurisprudence 
of  the  country.  lias  the  slave  no  rights,  because  he  is  deprived 
of  his  freedom?  lie  is  still  a  human  being,  and  possesses  all 
those  rights  of  which  he  is  not  deprived  by  the  positive  provi- 
sions of  the  law.  The  right  of  the  master  exists  not  by  force  of 
the  law  of  nature  or  nations,  but  by  virtue  only  of  the  positive 
law  of  the  State." 

The  Hon.  Judge  Ruffin,  of  North  Carolina,  says  : — ■ 

'•  Arguments  drawn  from  the  well-established  principles,  which 
confer  and  restrain  the  authority  of  the  parent  over  the  child, 
the  tutor  over  the  pupil,  the  master  over  the  apprentice,  have 
been  pressed  on  us.  The  Court  does  not  recognize  their  applica- 
tion ;  there  is  no  likeness  between  the  cases  ;  they  are  in  opposi- 
tion to  each  other,  and  there  is  an  impassable  gulf  between  them. 
The  difference  is  that  which  exists  between  freedom  and  slavery, 
and  a  greater  cannot  be  imagined.  In  the  one,  the  end  in  view 
is  the  happiness  of  the  youth,  born  to  equal  rights  with  that  gov- 
ernor on  whom  the  duty  devolves  of  training  the  young  to  use- 
fulness, in  a  station  which  he  is  afterwards  to  assume  among  free- 
men. To  such  an  end,  and  with  such  a  subject,  moral  and  intel- 
lectual instruction  seem  the  natural  means,  and,  for  the  most 
part,  they  are  found  to  suiBce.  Moderate  force  is  superadded 
only  to  make  the  others  effectual.  If  that  fail,  it  is  better  to 
leave  the  party  to  his  own  headstrong  passions,  and  the  ultimate 
correction  of  the  law,  than  to  allow  it  to  be  immoderately  in- 
flicted by  a  private  person.  AYith  slavery  it  is  far  otherwise. 
The  end  is  the  profit  of  the  master,  his  security,  and  the  public 
safety  ;  the  subject^  one  doomed,  in  his  own  person  and  his  pos 
terity,  to  live  without  knowledge,  and  without  the  capacity  to 
muka  anything  his  own,  and  to  toil  that  another  may  reap  the 
fru'ts.     What  moral  considerations  shall  be  addressed  to  such  a 


SOCTHERK   TESTIilOSY    AGAIN'ST    SLAVERY.  225 

being  to  convince  him,  wluit  it  is  impossible  but  that  tlie  most 
stupid  must  feel  and  know  can  never  be  true,  that  lie  is  thus  to 
•abor  upon  a  principle  of  natural  duty,  or  for  the  sake  of  his  own 
oersonal  happiness  ?  Such  services  can  only  be  expected  from 
one  uho  has  no  will  of  his  own  ;  who  surrenders  his  will  in  im- 
plicit obedience  to  that  of  another.  Such  obedience  is  the  con- 
sequence only  of  uncontrolled  authority  over  the  body.  There 
is  nothing  else  which  can  oj)erate  to  produce  the  effect.  The 
power  of  the  master  must  be  absolute  to  render  the  submission 
of  the  slave  perfect.  I  most  freely  confess  my  sense  of  the 
harshness  of  this  proposition.  I  feel  it  as  deeply  as  any  man 
can  J  and  as  a  principle  of  moral  right,  every  person  in  his  rr- 
tirement  must  repudiate  it." 

An  esteemed  friend,  a  physician,  who  was  I  .^rn  and 
bred  in  Rowan  county,  Xortli  Carolina,  and  who  now  re- 
sides there,  informs  us  that  Jud<jc  Gaston,  who  was  one 
of  the  half  dozen  Statesmen  wh(jm  the  South  has  produced 
since  the  days  of  the  venerable  fathers  of  the  Republic 
was  an  avowed  abolitionist,  and  that  he  published  an  ad- 
dress to  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  delineating,  in  a 
masterly  T^anner,  the  material,  moral,  and  social  disad' 
vantages  of  slaver}'.  AVhere  is  that  address  ?  Has  it 
been  suppressed  hy  the  oligarchy  ?  The  fact  that  slave- 
holders have,  from  time  to  time,  made  strenuous  eflorts  to 
expunge  the  sentiments  of  freedom  which  now  adorn  the 
works  of  nobler  men  than  the  noble  Gaston,  may,  perhaps, 
fully  account  for  the  oblivious  state  into  which  his  patrio- 
tic address  seems  to  have  fallen. 

THE  VOICE  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Poor  South  Carolina  !     Folly  is  her  nightcap  ;  fanati- 
c'sm  \3  her  d  iy-dreara  ;  fire-eating  is  her  pastime.     She  haf 

10* 


226  SOCTHERX    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

lost  her  better  judg-ment  ;  the  dictates  of  reason  and  pV.i 
losophy  have  no  influence  upon  her  actions.  Like  the  wile 
who  is  pitiably  infatuated  with  a  drunken,  worthless  hus- 
band, she  still  clings,  with  unabated  love,  to  the  cause  of 
her  shame,  her  misery,  and  her  degradation. 

A  Kentuckian  has  recently  expressed  his  opinion  of  this 
State  in  the  following  language  : — 

"  South  Carolina  is  bringing  herself  irrecoverably  in  the  public 
contempt.  It  is  impossible  for  any  impartial  lover  of  his  coun- 
try, for  any  just  thinking  man,  to  witness  her  senseless  and 
quenchless  malignancy  against  the  Union  without  the  most  im- 
measurable disgust  and  scorn.  She  is  one  vast  hot-bed  of  dis- 
union. Her  people  think  and  talk  of  nothing  else.  She  is  a  fes- 
tering mass  of  treason." 

In  1854,  there  were  assessed  for  taxation  in 

SOUTH    CAROLINA, 

Acres  of  Land 17,289,^59 

Valued  at 822,836,374 

Average  value  per  acre SI, 32 

At  the  same  time  there  were  in 

NEW   JERSEY, 

Acres  of  Land 5,324,800 

Valued  at S153,161,619 

Average  value  per  acre S28,76 

We  hope  the  Slavocrats  will  look,  first  on  that  picture, 
and  then  on  this  ;  from  one  or  the  other,  or  both,  they  may 
glean  a  ray  or  two  of  wisdom,  which,  if  duly  applied,  will 
be  of  incalculable  advantage  to  them  and  their  posterity 
Wl  trust,  also,  tha^  the  non-slaveholding  whites  will  view. 


SOnilERX    TESTIMONV    AfJAIN'ST    SLAVERY.  227 

witb  discriminating  minds,  the  dilTorcnt  lights  and  shades 
of  these  two  pictures  ;  they  are  the  parties  most  deeply 
interested  ;  and  it  is  to  them  we  look  for  the  glorious  revo- 
lution that  is  to  substitute  Freedom  for  Slavery.  They 
have  the  power  to  retrieve  the  fAllcn  fortunes  of  Soutli 
Carolina,  t  j  raise  her  up  from  the  loathsome  sink  of  iniquity 
into  which  slavery  has  plunged  her,  and  to  make  her  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  stars  in  the  great  constellation  of 
States.  While  their  minds  are  occupied  with  other  con- 
siderations, let  them  not  forget  the  diflercncc  between 
ticenty-eight  dollars  and  seventy-six  cents,  the  value  of  land  per 
acre  in  New  Jersey,  which  is  a  second-rate  free  State,  and 
(/ne  dollar  and  thirty-tico  cents,  the  value  of  laud  per  acre  in 
South  Carolina,  which  is,  jpar  trccllence,  the  model  slave 
State.  The  difTercnce  between  the  two  sums  is  twentj'- 
seven  dollars  and  forty-four  cents,  which  would  amount  to 
precisely  two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  forty-four  dol- 
lars on  every  hundred  acres.  To  present  the  subject  in 
another  form,  the  South  Carolina  tract  of  land,  containing 
two  hundred  acres,  is  worth  now  only  two  hundred  and 
sixty-four  dollars,  and  is  depreciating  every  day.  Let 
slavery  be  abolished,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years, 
the  same  tract  w*ill  be  worth  five  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  fifty-two  dollars,  with  an  upward  tendency.  At  this 
rate,  the  increment  of  value  on  the  total  area  of  the 
State  will  amount  to  more  than  three  times  as  much  as  the 
present  estimated  value  of  the  slaves  1 

South  Carolina  has  not  always  been,  nor  will  she  always 
continue  to  be,  on  the  wrong  side.  From  Ramsay's  His- 
tory of  tif  State,  we  learn  that,  in  17*14,  she  — 


228  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY 

''Resolved — That  Ilis  ^Majesty's  subjects  in  North  America 
(without  respect  to  color  or  other  accidents)  are  entitled  to  all 
the  inherent  rights  and  liberties  of  his  natural  born  subjects 
within  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  ;  that  it  is  their  fundamen- 
tal right,  that  no  man  should  suffer  in  his  person  or  property 
without  a  fair  trial,  and  judgment  given  by  his  peers,  or  by  the 
law  of  the  land." 

One  of  her  early  writers,  under  the  ncn  de  plume  of  Phi- 
lodemus,  in  a  political  pamphlet  published  in  Charleston 
in  1784,  declares  that — 

"  Such  is  the  fatal  influence  of  slavery  on  the  human  mind, 
that  it  almost  wholly  effaces  from  it  even  the  boasted  character- 
istic of  rationality." 

This  same  writer,  speaking  of  the  particular  interests 
of  South  Carolina,  says  : — 

"  It  has  been  too  common  with  us  to  search  the  records  of 
other  nations,  to  find  precedents  that  may  give  sanction  to  our 
own  errors,  and  lead  us  unwarily  into  confusion  and  ruin.  It  is 
our  business  to  consult  their  histories,  not  with  a  view  to  tread 
right  or  wrong  in  their  steps,  but  in  order  to  investigate  the  real 
sources  of  the  mischiefs  that  have  befallen  them,  and  to  endeavor 
to  escape  the  rocks  which  they  have  all  unfortunately  split  upon. 
It  is  paying  ourselves  but  a  poor  compliment,  to  say  that  we  are 
incapable  of  profiting  by  others,  and  that,  with  all  the  informa- 
tion which  is  to  be  derived  from  their  fatal  experience,  it  is  in 
vain  for  us  to  attempt  to  excel  them.  If,  with  all  the  peculiar 
advantages  of  our  present  situation,  we  are  incapable  of  surpass- 
ing our  predecessors,  we  must  be  a  degenerate  race  indeed,  and 
quite  unworthy  of  those  singular  bounties  of  Heaven,  which  we 
are  so  unskilled  or  undesirous  to  turn  to  our  benefit." 

A  recent  number  of  Frazcr's  Magazine  contains  a  well- 
limed  and  well-Trritten  article  from  the  pen  of  Wm.  Henry 


StHTIlRKX    rr.S'lIM.iN  V    ACAINST    SI.AVI.ltV.  229 

Iliirlbut,  of  tliis  Stuto  ;  and  from  it  wc  make  tlie  following 
extract  : — 

'•  As  all  sagacious  observers  of  the  operation  of  the  system  of 
slavcrj  have  demonstrated,  the  profitable  employment  of  slave- 
labor  is  inconsistent  with  the  development  of  agricultural  sci- 
ence, and  demands  a  continual  supply  of  new  and  unexhausted 
soil.  The  slaveholder,  investing  his  capital  in  the  purchase  of 
the  laborers  themselves,  and  not  merely  in  soil  and  machines, 
j)aying  his  free  laborers  out  of  the  profit,  must  depend  for  his 
continued  and  progressive  prosperity  upon  the  cheapness  and 
facility  with  which  he  can  transfer  his  slaves  to  fresh  and  fertile 
lands.  An  enormous  additional  item,  namely,  the  price  of  slaves, 
being  added  to  the  cost  of  production,  all  other  elements  of  that 
cost  require  to  be  proportionably  smaller,  or  profits  fail." 

In  an  address  delivered  before  the  South  Carolina  Insti- 
tute, in  Charleston,  Nov.  20th,  1856,  Mr.  B.  F.  Perry,  of 
Greenville,  truthfully  says  : — 

"  It  has  been  South  Carolina's  misfortune,  in  this  utilitarian 
age,  to  have  her  greatest  talents  and  most  powerful  energies  di- 
rected to  pursuit?,  which  avail  her  nothing,  in  the  way  of  wealth 
and  prosperity.  In  the  fir.st  settlement  of  a  new  country,  agri- 
cultural industry  necessarily  absorbs  all  the  time  and  occupation 
of  its  inhabitants.  They  must  clear  the  forests  and  cultivate  the 
earth,  in  order  to  make  their  bread.  This  is  their  first  consider- 
ation. Then  the  mechanical  arts,  and  manufactures,  and  com- 
merce, must  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  agriculture,  to  insure  either 
•'ndividual  or  national  prosperity.  No  people  can  be  highly  pros- 
perous without  them.  Xo  people  ever  have  been.  Agriculture, 
alone,  will  not  make  or  sustain  a  great  peojde.  The  true  policy 
of  every  people  is  to  cultivate  the  earth,  manufacture  its  pro- 
ducts, and  send  them  abroad,  in  exchange  for  those  comforts  and 
luxuries,  and  necessaries,  which  their  own  country  and  their  own 
industry  cannot  g.ve  or  make.  The  dependence  of  South  Car- 
olina Dn  Europ\  and  the  Northern  States  for  all  the  necessaries 


230  SOUrHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

comforts  and  luxuries,  which  the  mechanic  arts  afford,  has,  in 
fact,  drained  her  of  her  wea/th,  and  made  her  positively  poor, 
when  compared  with  her  sister  States  of  the  Confederacy.  It  is 
at  once  mortifying  and  alarming,  to  see  and  reflect  on  our  own 
dependence  in  the  mechanic  arts  and  manufactures,  on  strangers 
and  foreigners.  In  the  Northern  States  their  highest  talents 
and  energy  have  been  diversified,  and  more  profitably  emploj'ed 
in  developing  the  resources  of  the  country,  in  making  new  inven- 
tions in  the  mechanic  arts,  and  enriching  the  community  with 
science  and  literature,  commerce  and  manufactures." 

THE   VOICE    OF    GEORGIA. 

Of  the  States  strictly  Southern,  Georgia  is,  perhaps,  tb'> 
most  thrifty.  This  prosperous  condition  of  the  State  is 
mainly  ascribable  to  her  hundred  thousand  free  white 
laborers — more  than  eighty-three  thousand  of  whom  aro 
engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  In  few  other  slave 
States  are  the  non-slaveholders  so  little  under  the  domina- 
tion of  the  oligarchy.  At  best,  however,  even  in  the  most 
liberal  slave  States,  the  social  position  of  the  non-slave- 
holding  whites  is  but  one  short  step  in  advance  of  that 
of  the  negroes  ;  and  as  there  is,  on  the  part  of  the  oligar- 
chy, a  constantly  increasing  desire  and  effort  to  usiu-p 
greater  power,  the  more  we  investigate  the  subject  the 
more  fully  are  we  convinced  that  nothing  but  the  speedy 
and  utter  annihilation  of  slavery  from  the  entire  nation, 
can  save  the  masses  of  white  people  in  the  Southern  States 
fcom  ultimately  falling  to  a  political  level  with  the  blacks 
— both  occupying  the  most  abject  and  galling  condition 
of  servitude  of  which  it  is  possible  for  the  human  mind 
to  conceive. 

Gen.  Oglethorpe,  under  whose  management  the  Colony 


sournERX  testimony  again'st  si^vvery.  ^.31 

f  Gtwrgia  was  settled,  in  1733,  was  bitterly  opposed  to 
the  institution  of  slavery.  In  a  letter  to  Granville  Sliarp, 
dated  Oct.  13th,  177G,  he  says  :— 

"My  friends  and  1  settled  the  Colony  of  Georgia, and  by  cliar- 
ter  were  established  trustees,  to  make  laws,  &c.  We  deterniiiu-d 
not  to  Rufler  slavery  there.  But  the  slave  merchants  and  tluii 
adherents  occasioned  us  not  only  much  trouble,  but  at  last  jijot 
the  then  government  to  favor  them.  AVe  would  not  suffer  slav- 
ery, (which  is  against  the  Gospel,  as  well  as  thefundamentallavv 
of  England.)  to  be  authorized  under  our  authority  ;  we  refused, 
as  trustees,  to  make  a  law  permitting  such  a  horrid  crime.  The 
government,  finding  the  trustees  resolved  firmlj'"  not  to  concur 
with  what  they  believed  unjust,  took  away  the  charter  by  which 
no  law  could  be  passed  without  our  consent.-' 

On  the  12th  of  January,  1775,  in  indorsing  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  first  American  Congress,  among  other  resolir 
tions,  "  the  Keprescntatives  of  the  extensive  District  oi 
Darien,  in  the  Colony  of  Georgia'^  adopted  the  following  : — 

"5.  To  show  the  world  that  we  are  not  influenced  by  an}^  con 
tracted  or  interested  motives,  but  a  general  philanthropy  for  ^^ 
mankind,  of  whatever  climate,  language,  or  complexion,  we  hereby 
declare  our  disapprobation  and  abhorrence  of  the  unnatural  prac- 
tice of  slavery  in  America,  (however  the  uncultivated  state  of  our 
country  or  other  specious  arguments  may  plead  for  it.)  a  practice 
founded  in  injustice  and  cruelty,  and  highly  dangerous  to  our  lib- 
erties, (as  well  as  lives.)  debasing  part  of  our  fellow  creatures  be- 
low men,  and  corrupting  the  virtue  and  morals  of  the  rest ;  ant 
is  laying  the  basis  of  that  liberty  we  contend  for,  (and  which  w- 
pray  the  Almighty  to  continue  to  the  latest  posterity,)  upon  a 
very  wrong  foundation.  We  therefore  resolve,  at  all  times.  t.» 
use  our  utmost  endeavors  for  the  manumission  of  our  slaves  in 
this  Colony,  upon  the  most  safe  and  equitable  footing  fcr  the 
masters  and  Jiemsclve* 


232  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

The  Hon.  Mr.  Reid,  of  this  State,  in  a  speech  deliverea 
in  Congress,  Feb.  1,  1820,  says  : — 

"  I  am  not  the  panegyrist  of  slavery.  It  is  an  unnatural  state, 
a  dark  clDud,  which  obscures  half  the  lustre  of  our  free  institu- 
tions. For  my  own  part,  though  surrounded  by  slavery  from  my 
cradle  to  the  present  moment,  yet — 

'  I  hate  the  touch  of  servile  hands, 
I  loathe  the  slaves  who  cringe  around.'  " 

As  an  accompaniment  to  those  lines,  he  might  have 
uttered  these  : — 

"  I  would  not  have  a  slave  to  till  my  ground  ; 
To  carry  me,  to  fan  me  while  I  sleep 
And  tremble  when  I  wake,  for  all  the  wealth 
That  sinews  bought  and  sold  have  ever  earned." 

Thus  have  we  presented  a  comprehensive  summary  of 
the  most  unequivocal  and  irrefragable  testimony  of  tha 
South  against  the  iniquitous  institution  of  human  slavery 
What  more  can  we  say  ?  What  more  can  we  do  ?  We 
might  fill  a  folio  volume  with  similar  extracts  ;  but  we 
must  forego  the  task  ;  the  remainder  of  our  space  must  be 
occupied  with  other  arguments.  In  the  foregoing  excerptis 
is  revealed  to  us,  in  language  too  plain  to  be  misunderstood, 
the  important  fact  that  every  truly  great  and  good  man 
the  South  has  ever  produced,  has,  with  hopeful  confidence, 
looked  forward  to  the  time  when  this  entire  continent  shall 
be  redeemed  from  the  crime  and  the  curse  of  slavery.  Our 
noble  self-sacrificing  forefathers  have  performed  their  part, 
and  performed  it  well.  They  have  laid  us  a  foundation  as 
enduring  as  th«  carjih  itself  ;  in  their  dying  moments  they 


SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY.  233 

admonished  us  to  carry  out  their  designs  in  the  ufLuilding 
and  completion  of  the  superstructure.  Let  us  obey  their 
patriotic  injunctions. 

From  each  of  the  six  original  Southern  States  we  have 
introduced  the  most  ardent  aspirations  for  liberty — the 
most  positive  condemnations  of  slavery.  From  each  of 
the  nine  slave  States  which  have  been  admitted  into  the 
Union  since  the  organization  of  the  General  Government, 
we  could  introduce,  from  several  of  their  wisest  and  best 
citizens,  anti-slavery  sentiments  equally  as  strong  and  con- 
vincing as  those  that  emanated  from  the  great  founders 
of  our  movement — "Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Patrick 
llenry  and  tlie  Kandolphs.  As  we  have  already  remarked, 
however,  the  limits  of  this  chapter  will  not  admit  of  the 
introduction  of  additional  testimony  from  either  of  the  old 
or  of  the  new  slave  States. 

The  reader  will  not  fail  to  observe  that,  in  presenting 
these  solid  abolition  doctrines  of  the  South,  we  have  been 
careful  to  make  such  quotations  as  triumphantly  refute,  in 
every  particular,  the  more  specious  sophistries  of  the 
oligarchy. 

The  mention  of  the  illustrious  names  above,  reminds  us 
of  the  fact,  that  the  party  newspapers,  whose  venal  columns 
are  eternally  teeming  with  vituperation  and  slander,  have 
long  assured  us  that  the  Whig  ship  was  to  be  steered  by 
the  Washington  rudder,  that  the  Democratic  barque  was 
to  sail  with  the  Jefferson  compass,  and  that  the  Know- 
Nothing  brig  was  to  carry  the  Madison  chart.  Imposed 
npon  by  these  monstrous  falsehoods,  we  have,  from  time 
to  time,  been  induced  to  engage  passage  on  each  of  these 


^>34 


SOUTHERN   TESTIMOXY   AGAINST    SLAVERY. 


corrupt  and  rickety  old  hulks  ;  but,  in  every  instance,  we 
have  been  basely  swamped  in  the  sea  of  slavery,  and  are 
alone  indebted  for  our  lives  to  the  kindness  of  Heaven  and 
the  art  of  swimming.  Washington  the  founder  of  the 
Whig  party  !  Jefferson  the  founder  of  the  Democratic 
party  I  Voltaire  the  founder  of  Christianity  I  God  forbid 
that  man's  heart  should  always  continue  to  be  the  citadel 
of  deception — that  he  should  ever  be  to  others  the  antipode 
of  what  he  is  to  himself. 

There  is  now  in  this  country  but  one  party  that  promises, 
in  good  faith,  to  put  in  practice  the  principles  of  Washing- 
ton, Jefferson,  Madison,  and  the  otlier  venerable  Fathers 
of  the  Republic — the  Republican  party.  To  this  party  we 
pledge  unswerving  allegiance,  so  long  as  it  shall  continue 
to  pursue  the  statism  advocated  by  the  great  political 
prototypes  above-mentioned,  but  no  longer.  We  believe 
it  is,  as  it  ought  to  be,  the  desire,  the  determination,  and 
the  destiny  of  this  party,  to  give  the  death-blow  to  slavery ; 
should  future  developments  prove  the  party  at  variance 
with  this  belief — a  belief,  by  the  bye,  which  it  has  recently 
inspired  in  the  breasts  of  little  less  than  one  and  a  half 
millions  of  the  most  intelligent  and  patriotic  voters  in 
America — we  shall  shake  off  the  dust  of  our  feet  against 
it,  and  join  one  that  will,  in  a  summary  manner  ovf^rr^^f- 
the  intolerable  grievance. 


NORTHEUN    TESTIMOXV.  235 


CHAPTER    IV. 


NORTHERN    TESTIMONf, 


The  best  evidence  that  can  be  given  of  the  enlightened 
patriotism  and  love  of  liberty  in  the  Free  States,  is  the 
fact  that,  at  the  Presidential  election  in  1856,  they  polled 
thirteen  hundred  thousand  votes  for  the  Pepublican  can- 
didate, John  C.  Fremont.  This  fact  of  itself  seems  to 
preclude  the  necessity  of  strengthening  our  cause  with  the 
individual  testimony  of  even  their  greatest  men.  Having, 
however,  adduced  the  most  cogent  and  conclusive  anti- 
slavery  arguments  from  the  Washingtons,  the  JefTersons, 
the  Madisons,  the  Randolphs,  and  the  Clays  of  the  South, 
we  shall  now  proceed  to  enrich  our  pages  with  gems  of 
Liberty  from  the  Franklins,  the  Hamiltons,  the  Jays,  the 
Adamses,  and  the  Wcbsters  of  the  North.  Too  close  at- 
tention cannot  be  paid  to  the  words  of  wisdom  which  we 
have  extracted  from  the  works  of  these  truly  eminent  and 
philosophic  Statesmen.     "We  will  first  listen  to 

THE    voice    of    franklin. 

Dr.  Franklin  was  the  first  president  of  "  Tlie  Pennsyl- 
vania Society  for  promoting  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  ;'' 


236  NORTHERN   TE311M0NY. 

and  it  is  now  generally  conceded  that  this  was  the  first 
regularly  organized  American  abolition  Society — it  having 
been  formed  as  early  as  1774,  while  we  were  yet  subjects 
of  the  British  government.  In  1790,  in  the  name  and  on 
behalf  of  this  Society,  Dr.  Franklin,  who  was  then  within 
a  few  months  of  the  close  of  his  life,  drafted  a  memorial 
"  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States,"  in  which  he  said  : — 


"  Your  memorialists,  particularly  engaged  in  attending  to  the 
distresses  arising  from  slavery,  believe  it  to  be  their  indispenRa- 
ble  duty  to  present  this  subject  to  your  notice.  They  have  ob- 
served, with  real  satisfaction,  that  many  important  and  salutary 
powers  are  vested  in  you,  for  '  promoting  the  welfare  and  secur- 
ing the  blessings  of  liberty  to  the  people  of  the  United  States; 
and  as  they  conceive  that  these  blessings  ought  rightfully  to  be 
administered,  without  distinction  of  color,  to  all  descriptions  of 
people,  so  they  indulge  themselves  in  the  pleasing  expectation 
that  nothing  which  can  be  done  for  the  relief  of  the  unhappy  ob- 
jects of  their  care,  will  be  either  omitted  or  delayed. 

From  a  persuasion  that  equal  liberty  was  originally  the  por- 
tion, and  is  still  the  birthright  of  all  men,  and  influenced  by  the 
strong  ties  of  humanity  and  the  principles  of  their  institution, 
3-our  memorialists  conceive  themselves  bound  to  use  all  justifia- 
ble endeavors  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  slavery,  and  promote  a  gen- 
eral enjoyment  of  the  blessings  of  freedom.  Under  these  im- 
pressions, they  earnestly  entreat  your  attention  to  the  subject 
of  slavery  ;  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  countenance  the  restora- 
tion to  liberty  of  those  unhappy  men,  who,  alone,  in  this  laud  of 
freedom,  are  degraded  into  perpetual  bondage,  and  who,  amid  the 
general  joy  of  surrounding  freemen,  are  groaning  in  servile  sub- 
jection ;  that  you  will  devise  means  for  removing  this  inconsis- 
tency of  character  from  the  American  people;  that  you  will,  pro- 
mote mercy  and  justice  towards  this  distressed  race;  and  that 
you  will  step  t:  the  very  verge  of  the  power  vested  in  you  for 


NOnniERX  TESTIMOXV.  237 

discouraging  every  species  of  trafTic  in  the  persons  of  our  fcllow- 
mcn." 

On  another  occasion,  he  says  : — '•  Slavery  is  an  atrocious  de- 
basement of  human  nature." 

THE    VOICE    OF    HAMILTON". 

Alexander  Hamilton,  the  brilliant  Statesman  and  finan- 
cier, tells  us  that — 

*'  The  sacred  rights  of  mankind  arc  not  to  be  rummaged  for 
among  old  parchments  or  musty  records.  They  are  written  as 
with  a  sunbeam,  in  the  whole  volume  of  human  nature,  by  the 
hand  of  the  Divinity  itself,  and  can  never  be  erased  or  obscured 
by  mortal  power." 

Again,  in  1774,  addressing  himself  to  an  American  Tory, 
he  says  : — 

'•  The  fundamental  source  of  all  3'our  errors,  sophisms,  and 
false  reasonings,  is  a  total  ignorance  of  the  natural  rights  of  man- 
kind. Were  you  once  to  become  acquainted  with  these,  you 
could  never  entertain  a  thought,  that  all  men  are  not,  by  nature, 
entitled  to  equal  privileges.  You  would  he  convinced  that  natu- 
ral lihcrty  is  the  gift  of  the  beneficent  Creator  to  the  whole  hu- 
man race  ;  and  that  civil  liberty  is  founded  on  that." 

THE    VOICE    OF    J.VY. 

John  Jay,  first  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  under 
the  Constitution  of  1789,  in  a  letter  to  the  lion.  Elias  Bou- 
dinot,  dated  Nov.  17,  1819,  says  : — 

''  Little  can  be  added  to  what  has  been  said  and  written  on  the 
^uhject  of  slavery.  I  concur  in  the  opinion  that  it  ou^ht  not  to 
be  introduced  nor  permitted  in  any  of  the  new  States,  and  that 
it  ought  '.o  be  gradually  diminished  and  finally  abolished  in  all 
of  them 


238  NORTHERN   TESTIMONY 

"  To  me,  the  constitutional  authority  of  the  Congress  to  prohi 
bit  the  migration  and  importation  of  slaves  into  any  of  the  States 
does  not  appear  questionable. 

"  The  first  article  of  the  Constitution  specifies  the  legislative 
powers  committed  to  the  Congress.  The  9th  section  of  that  article 
has  these  words :  '  The  migration  or  imporlation  of  such  persona 
as  any  of  the  now-existing  States  shall  think  proper  to  admit, 
shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the  Congress  prior  to  the  year  1808, 
but  a  tax  or  duty  may  be  imposed  on  such  importation,  not  ex- 
ceeding ten  dollars  for  each  person.' 

"  I  understand  the  sense  and  meaning  of  this  clause  to  be,  tha'; 
the  power  of  the  congress,  although  competent  to  prolnbit  such 
migration  and  importation,  was  to  be  exercised  with  respect  to 
the  iheji  existing  States,  and  them  only,  until  the  year  1S03,  but 
the  Congress  were  at  liberty  to  make  such  prohibitions  as  to  any 
new  State,  which  might  in  the  mean  time  be  established.  And 
further,  that  from  and  after  that  period,  they  were  authorized  to 
make  such  prohibitions  as  to  all  the  States,  whether  new  or  old. 

"  It  will.  I  presume,  be  admitted,  that  slaves  were  the  persons 
intended.  The  word  slaves  was  avoided,  probably  on  account 
of  the  existing  toleration  of  slavery,  and  its  discordanc}^  with  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution,  and  from  a  consciousness  of  its  be- 
ing repugnant  to  the  following  positions  in  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence :  '  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all 
men  are  created  equal  ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  " 

In  a  previous  letter,  written  from  Spain,  whither  he  had 
been  appointed  as  minister  plenipotentiary,  he  says, 
speaking  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  : — 

'•Till  America  comes  into  this  measure,  her  prayers  toITeaven 
will  be  impious.  This  is  a  strong  expression,  but  it  is  just.  I 
believe  that  God  governs  the  world,  and  I  believe  it  to  be  a 
maxim  in  His,  as  in  our  Courts,  tha  those  who  ask  for  equity 
ousht  to  d  D  it." 


NORTHF.RN'    TKSTIMOXV.  239 

WILLIAM    JAY. 

The  lion.  Win.  Jay,  a  noble  son  of  Chief  Justice  Jolm 
Jay,  says  : — 

'•  A  crisis  has  arrived  in  which  wc  must  maintain  our  rights,  or 
surrender  them  for  ever.  I  speak  not  to  abolitionists  alone,  but 
to  all  who  Talue  the  liberty  our  fathers  achieved.  Do  you  ask 
what  we  have  to  do  with  slavery  ?  Let  our  muzzled  presses  an- 
Bwer — let  the  mobs  excited  against  us  by  the  merchants  and 
politicians  answer — let  the  gag  laws  threatened  by  our  governors 
and  legishiturcs  answer,  lot  the  conduct  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment answer." 

THE    VOICE    OF    ADAMS. 

From  the  Diary  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  "  the  old  mau 
eloquent,"  we  make  the  following  extract  : — 

'*  It  is  among  the  evils  of  slavery,  that  it  taints  the  very  sources 
of  moral  principle.  It  establishes  false  estimates  of  virtue  and 
vice  ;  for  what  can  be  more  fa^se  and  more  heartless  than  this 
doctrine,  which  makes  the  iirst  and  holiest  rights  of  humanity  to 
depend  upon  the  c(;lor  of  tlie  skin  ?  It  perverts  human  reason 
and  induces  men  endowed  with  logical  powers  to  maintain  that 
slavery  is  sanctioned  by  the  Christian  religion  ;  that  slaves  are 
happy  and  contented  in  their  condition  ;  that  between  master 
and  slave  there  are  ties  of  mutual  attachment  and  affection  ;  that 
the  virtues  of  the  master  are  refmed  and  exalted  by  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  slave,  while  at  the  same  time  they  vent  execrations 
upon  the  slave-trade,  curse  Britain  for  having  given  them  slaves, 
burn  at  the  stake  negroes  convicted  of  ?nmes,  for  the  terror 
of  the  example,  and  writhe  in  agonies  of  fear  at  the  very  men- 
tion of  human  rights  as  applicable  to  men  of  color." 

THE    VOICE    OF    WF.BSTFR. 

In  a  speech  wh*'5h  he  delivered  at  Xiblo's  Garden,  in 


240  NORTHERN   TESTIMONY. 

the  city  of  New-York,  on  the  15th  of  March,  184t.  Danid 
Webster,  the  great  Expounder  of  the  Constitution,  said  : — 

"On  the  general  question  of  slavery,  a  great  part  of  the  com- 
munity is  already  strongly  excited.  The  subject  has  not  only 
attracted  attention  as  a  question  of  politics,  but  it  has  struck  a 
far  deeper  one  ahead.  It  has  arrested  the  religious  feeling  of 
the  country,  it  has  taken  strong  hold  on  the  consciences  of  men. 
He  is  a  rash  man,  indeed,  and  little  conversant  with  human  na- 
ture, and  especially  has  he  an  erroneous  estimate  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  people  of  this  country,  vrbo  supposes  that  a  feeling  of 
this  kind  is  to  be  trifled  with  or  despised.  It  wiil  assuredly 
cause  itself  to  be  respected.  But  to  endeavor  to  coin  it  into  sil- 
ver, or  retain  its  free  expression,  to  seek  to  compress  and  con- 
fine it,  warm  as  it  is,  and  more  heated  as  such  endeavors  would 
inevitably  render  it — should  this  be  attempted,  I  know  nothing, 
even  in  the  Constitution  or  Union  itself,  which  might  not  be  en- 
dangered by  the  explosion  which  might  follow." 

When  discussing  the  Oregon  Bill  in  1848,  he  said: — 

"I  have  made  up  my  mind,  for  one,  that  under  no  circumstan- 
ces will  I  consent  to  the  further  extension  of  the  area  of  slavery 
in  the  United  States,  or  to  the  further  increase  of  slave  repre- 
Bectation  in  the  House  of  Representatives." 

Under  date  of  February  15th,  1850,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Furness,  he  says  : — • 

"  From  my  earliest  youth  I  have  regarded  slavery  as  a  great 
moral  and  political  evil.  I  think  it  unjust,  repugnant  to  the  nat- 
ural equality  of  mankind,  founded  only  in  superior  power  ;  a 
standing  and  permanent  conquest  by  the  stronger  over  the 
weaker.  All  pretense  of  defending  it  on  the  ground  of  different 
races,  I  have  ever  condemned.  I  have  even  said  that  if  the  black 
race  is  weaker,  that  is  a  reason  against,  not  for,  its  subjection 
and  oppression.  In  a  relig'ous  point  of  view  I  have  ever  regard- 
ed it,  and  even  spoken  cf  ii,  not  as  subject  to  any  express  donun* 


NORTHERK   TESTIMONY.  241 

elation,  cither  in  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New,  but  is  apposed 
to  tile  wliole  spirit  of  tlie  Gospel  and  to  the  teacliings  of  Jesus 
Clirist.  Tile  ivligion  of  Jesus  Clirist  is  a  religion  of  kindiies-^, 
justice,  and  brotherly  love.  But  slavery  is  not  kindly  alTcctiou- 
ate;  it  docs  not  seek  anothers,  and  not  its  own  ;  it  docs  not  let 
the  oppressed  go  free.  It  is,  as  I  have  said,  but  a  continual  act 
of  oppression.  But  then,  such  is  the  influence  of  a  habit  of 
thinking  among  men,  and  such  is  tiie  influence  of  what  has  been 
long  established,  that  even  minds,  religious  ani  tenderly  con- 
scientious, such  as  would  be  shocked  by  any  single  act  of  oppres- 
sion, in  any  single  exercise  of  violence  and  unjust  power,  are  not 
always  moved  by  the  reflection  that  slavery  is  a  continual  and 
permanent  violation  of  human  rights." 

While  delivering  a  speech  at  Buffalo,  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  in  the  summer  of  1851,  only  about  twelve 
months  prior  to  his  decease,  he  made  use  of  the  following 
emphatic  words  : — 

'•I  never  would  consent,  and  never  have  consented,  that  there 
should  be  one  foot  of  slave  territory  beyond  what  the  old  thir- 
teen States  had  at  the  formation  of  the  Union.     Never,  never  ." 

NOAH   WEBSTER. 

Noah  Webster,  the  great  American  vocabulist,  says : — 

^'That  freedom  is  the  sacred  right  of  every  man,  whatever  be 
Lis  color,  who  has  not  forfeit<;d  it  by  some  violation  of  muni- 
cipal law,  is  a  truth  establislied  by  God  himself,  in  the  very  crea- 
tion of  human  being?.  No  time,  no  circumstance,  no  human 
power  or  policy  can  change  the  nature  of  this  truth,  nor  repeal 
the  fundamental  laws  of  society,  by  which  every  man's  right  to 
liberty  is  guarantied.  The  act  of  enslaving  men  is  always  a  vio- 
lation of  those  great  primary  laws  of  society,  by  which  alonc^ 
i\w  master  himself  holds  rvery  particle  of  his  own  freedom." 

a 


242  NORTHERN   ?ESTDIONY. 

THE    VOICE    OF   CLINTON. 

DeWitt  Clinton,  the  father  of  the  great  s^^stem  of  inter- 
nal improTements  in  the  State  of  New  York,  speaking  of 
despotism  in  Europe,  and  of  slavery  in  America,  asks  : — 

'•  Have  not  prescription  and  precedent — patriarchal  dominion 
— divine  right  of  kings  and  masters,  been  alternately  called  in  to 
sanction  the  slaveiy  of  nations  1  And  would  not  all  the  despot- 
isms of  the  ancient  and  modern  world  have  vanished  into  air,  if 
jhe  natural  equality  of  mankind  had  been  properly  understood 
and  practiced  7  *  *  *  This  declares  that  the  same  measure  of 
justice  ought  to  be  measured  out  to  all  men,  without  regard  to 
adventitious  inequalities,  and  the  intellectual  and  physical  dispari- 
ties which  proceed  from  inexplicable  causes." 

THE    VOICE    OF   WARREN. 

Major  General  Joseph  Warren,  one  of  the  truest  pat- 
riots of  the  Eevolution,  and  the  first  American  officer  of 
rank  that  fell  in  our  contest  with  Great  Britain,  says  : — 

*'  That  personal  freedom  is  the  natural  right  of  every  man.  and 
that  property,  or  an  exclusive  right  to  dispose  of  what  he  has 
honestly  acquired  by  his  own  labor,  necessarily  arises  therefrom, 
are  truths  that  common  sense  has  placed  beyond  the  reach  of 
contradiction.  And  no  man,  or  body  of  men,  can,  without  being 
guilty  of  flagrant  injustice,  claim  a  right  to  dispose  of  the  persons 
or  acquisitions  of  any  other  man  or  body  of  men,  unless  it  can  be 
proved  that  such  a  right  has  arisen  from  some  compact  between 
the  parties,  in  which  it  has  been  explicitly  and  freelj'  granlicd." 

Otis,  Hancock,  Amrs,  and  others,  should  be  heard,  but 
for  the  want  of  space.  Volumes  upon  volumes  might  be 
filled  with  extracts  similar  to  the  above,  from  the  works 
of  the  deceased  Statesmen  and  sages  of  the  North,  who, 


NOUTHKUN-    TESTIMONY.  24  3 

whilt  living,  proved  themselves  equal  to  the  ta^k  of  ex- 
teriniiuitiuij;  iVoiii  their  owu  States  tl  c  matehless  curse  ot* 
human  slavery.  Such  are  the  men  who,  though  no  lunger 
with  us  in  the  flesh,  "  still  live."  A  living  principle — an 
immortal  interest — have  they,  invested  in  every  great  and 
good  work  that  distinguishes  the  free  States.  The  rail- 
roads, the  canals,  the  telegraphs,  the  factories,  the  fleets 
of  merchant  vessels,  the  magnificent  cities,  the  scientific 
modes  of  agriculture,  the  unrivaled  institutions  of  learning, 
and  other  striking  evidences  of  progress  and  improvement 
at  the  North,  are,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  the  oil- 
spring  of  their  gigantic  intellects.  When,  if  ever,  com- 
merce, and  manufactures,  and  agriculture,  and  great  en- 
terprises, and  truth,  and  liberty,  and  justice,  and  magnan- 
imity, shall  have  become  obsolete  terms,  then  their  names 
maj'  possibly  be  forgotten,  but  not  tell  then. 

An  army  of  brave  and  worthy  successors — championg 
of  Freedom  now  living,  have  the  illustrious  forefathers  of 
the  Xorth,  in  the  persons  of  Garrison,  Greeley,  Giddings, 
Goodell,  Grow,  and  Gerrit  Smith  ;  in  Seward,  Sumner, 
Stowe,  Raymond,  Parker,  and  Phillips  ;  in  Beecher,  Banks, 
Burlingame,  Bryant,  Hale,  and  Ilildreth  ;  in  Emerson, 
Dayton,  Thompson,  Tappan,  King  and  Clieevcr  ;  in  Whit- 
tier,  Wilson,  Wade,  Wayland,  Weed,  and  Burleigh.  These 
are  the  men  whom,  in  connection  with  their  learned  and 
eloquent  compatriots,  the  Everetts,  the  Bancrofts,  the 
Prescotts,  the  Chapins,  the  Longfellows,  and  the  Danas, 
future  historians,  if  faithful  to  their  calling,  will  place  on 
record  as  America's  true  statesmen,  literati,  preachers, 
philosophei  ^,  and  philanthi3-)ists,  of  the  present  age. 


244  NORTHERN   TESTIMONY. 

In  this  connection,  however,  it  ma}^  not  be  amiss  tc  rer 
maik  that  the  Homers,  the  Platos,  tlie  Bacons,  the  New- 
tons,  the  Shakspeares,  the  Miltons,  the  Blackstones,  the 
Cuvieis,  the  Humboldts,  and  the  Maca-ulajs  of  Amercia, 
have  not  yet  been  produced  ;  nor,  in  our  humble  judgment, 
will  they  be,  until  slavery  shall  have  been  overthrown  and 
freedom  established  in  the  States  of  Virg-inia,  Kentucky, 
and  Tennessee.  Upon  the  soil  of  those  States,  when  free, 
or  on  other  free  soil  crossed  by  about  the  same  degrees 
of  latitude,  and  not  distant  from  the  Appalachian  chain  of 
mountains,  will,  we  believe,  be  nurtured  into  manhood,  in 
the  course  of  one  or  two  centuries,  perhaps,  as  great  men 
as  those  mentioned  above — greater,  possibly,  than  any 
that  have  ever  yet  lived.  Whence  their  ancestors  may 
come,  whether  from  Europe,  from  Asia,  from  Africa,  from 
Oceanica,  from  North  oi  South  America,  or  from  the 
islands  of  the  sea,  or  whatever  honorable  vocation  they 
may  now  be  engaged  in,  matters  nothing  at  all.  For 
ought  we  know,  their  great-grandfathers  are  now  humble 
artisans  in  Maine,  or  moneyed  merchants  in  Massachu 
setts  ;  illiterate  poor  whites  in  Mississippi,  or  slave-driv- 
ing lordlings  in  South  Carolina  ;  frugal  farmers  in  Michi- 
gan, or  millionaires  in  Illinois  ;  daring  hunters  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  or  metal-diggers  in  California  ;  peasants 
in  France,  or  princes  in  Germany — no  matter  where,  or 
what,  the  scope  of  country  above-mentioned  is,  in  our 
opinion,  destined  to  be  the  birth-place  of  their  illustrious 
offspring — the  great  savans  of  the  New  World,  concern- 
ing wh<jim  we  should  console  ourselves  with  tlie  hope  that 
they  ara  not  burir  i  deeply  in  the  matrix  of  the  future. 


rESTIMr.XY    OF   THE    XATIOXS.  2tl 


CnAPTER   V. 

TESTIMONY    OF    THE     NATIONS. 

T%  the  true  friends  of  freedom  throughout  the  world,  it 
is  a  pleasing  thought,  and  one  which,  by  being  communi- 
cated to  others,  is  well  calculated  to  universalize  the  prin- 
ciples of  liberty,  that  the  great  heroes,  statesmen,  and 
sages,  of  all  ages  and  nations,  ancient  and  modern,  who 
have  ever  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  institution  of  hu- 
man slavery,  have  entered  their  most  unequivocal  and 
positive  protests  against  it.  To  say  that  they  disapproved 
of  the  system  would  not  be  sufficiently  expressive  of  the 
utter  detestation  with  wliich  they  uniformly  regarded  it. 
That  they  abhorred  it  as  the  vilest  invention  that  the  Evil- 
One  has  ever  assisted  bad  men  to  concoct,  is  quite  evi- 
dent from  the  very  tone  and  construction  of  their  lan- 
guage. 

Having,  with  much  pleasure  and  profit,  heard  the  testi- 
mony of  America,  through  her  representative  men,  we 
will  now  liear  that  of  other  nations,  through  their  repre- 
sentative men — doubting  not  that  we  shall  be  more  than 
remunerated  for  our  time  and  trouble.  Wo  will  firs/ 
listen  to 


24(5  TESTIMONY    01    THE    NATIONS. 

THE    VOICE    OF    ENGLAND. 

In  the  case  of  James  Somerset,  a  negro  TVno  had  been 
kidnapped  in  Africa,  transported  to  Virginia,  there  sold 
into  slavery,  thence  carried  to  England,  as  a  waiting-boy, 
and  there  induced  to  institute  proceedings  against  his 
master  for  the  recovery  of  his  freedom, 

MANSFIELD  Saj^S  : 

"  The  state  of  slavery  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  is  incapable 
of  being  introduced  on  any  reasons,  moral  or  political,  but  only 
by  positive  law,  which  preserves  its  force  long  after  the  reasons, 
occasion,  and  time  itself  whence  it  was  created,  is  erased  from  the 
memory.  It  is  so  odious  that  nothing  can  be  sufficient  to  sup- 
port it  but  positive  law.  Whatever  inconveniences,  therefore, 
may  follow  from  the  decision,  I  cannot  say  this  case  is  allowed 
or  approved  by  the  law  of  England,  and  therefore  the  black  must 
be  discharged." 

LOCKE  says  : — 

"  Slavery  is  so  vile,  so  miserable  a  state  of  man,  and  so  directly 
opposite  to  the  generous  temper  and  courage  of  our  nation,  tnat 
it  is  hard  to  be  convinced  that  an  Englishman,  much  less  a  gen- 
tleman, should  plead  for  it." 

Again,  he  says  : — 

"  Though  the  earth,  and  all  inferior  creatures  be  common  to 
all  men,  yet  every  man  has  a  property  iu  his  own  person  j  thia 
nobody  has  any  right  to  but  himself." 

riTT  says  : — 
"It  is  injustice  to  permit  slavery  to  remain  fvf  a  Bingle  hour." 

FOX  says : — 
*'With  regard  to  a  regulation  of  slavery,  my  detestation  of  it.'^ 


TESTIMi^XV    OF    TIIK    NATIONS.  247 

existence  induces  nie  to  know  no  such  thing  as  a  regulation  of 
lohbory,  and  a  restriction  of  murder.  Personal  freedom  is  a 
rght  of  which  he  who  deprives  a  fellow-creatare  is  criminal  in 
&o  depriving  him,  and  he  who  withholds  is  no  less  criminal  in 
withholding." 

siiAKsrEARE  says  : — 

"  A  man  is  master  of  his  liberty." 

Again,  he  says  : — 

'•It  is  the  curse  of  Kings,  to  be  attended 
By  slaves,  that  take  their  humors  for  a  warrant 
To  break  within  the  bloody  house  of  life, 
And,  on  the  winking  of  authority. 
To  understand  a  law ;  to  know  the  meaning 
Of  dangerous  majesty,  when,  perchance,  it  frowns 
More  upon  humor  than  advised  respect." 

Again  : — 

"  Heaven  will  one  day  free  us  from  this  slavery," 

Again  : — 

"  Liberty  !  Freedom  !  Tyranny  is  dead  ! — 
Run  hence,  proclaim,  cry  it  about  the  streets ; 
Some  to  the  common  pulpits,  and  cry  out, 
Liberty,  freedom,  and  enfranchisement" 

cowpER  says  : — 

"Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England  ;  if  tiieir  lungs 
Receive  our  air,  that  moment  tliey  are  free. 
They  touch  our  country  and  their  shackles  fall. 
That's  noble,  and  bespeaks  a  nution  proud 
And  jealous  of  the  blessing.     Spread  it  then. 
And  let  it  circulate  through  every  vein 
Of  all  your  Empire,  that  where  Britain's  power 
Is  felt,  laankind  may  feel  her  mercy  too  !" 


248  TESTIMONY    OF   THE    VATIOXS. 

MILTON  asks  : — 

"  TThere  is  the  beauty  to  see, 

Like  the  sun-brilliant  brow  of  a  nation  when  frieo  ?" 

Again,  he  says  : — 

"  If  our  fathers  promised  for  themselves,  to  make  themselves 
slaves,  they  could  make  no  such  promise  for  us." 

Again  : — 

"Since,  therefore,  the  law  is  chiefly  right  reason,  if  we  are 
bound  to  obey  a  magistrate  as  a  minister  of  God,  by  the  very  same 
reason  and  the  very  same  law,  we  ought  to  resist  a  tyrant,  and 
minister  of  the  devil." 

DR.  JOHNSON  says  : — 

*'  No  man  is  by  nature  the  property  of  another.  The  rights  of 
nature  must  be  some  way  forfeited  before  they  can  justly  be  taken 


DR.  PRICE  says  : — ■ 

'*  If  you  have  a  right  to  make  another  man  a  slave,  he  has  a 
right  to  make  you  a  slave." 

BLACKSTONE  says  : — 

''If  neither  captivity  nor  contract  can,  by  the  plain  law  of  na- 
ture and  reason,  reduce  the  parent  to  a  state  of  slavery,  much 
^ess  can  they  reduce  the  offspring." 

Again,  he  says  : — 

"  The  primary  aim  of  society  is  to  protect  individuals  in  the 
enjoyment  of  those  absolute  rights  which  were  vested  in  them  by 
the  immutable  laws  of  nature.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  first 
and  primary  end  of  human  laws  is  to  maintain  those  absolute 
rights  0  '  indiv-'duals." 


TESTIMONY    OF    THE    NATIONS.  219 

Again  : — 

''  If  any  human  law  shall  allow  or  require  us  to  commit  crime, 
we  arc  bound  to  transgress  that  human  law,  or  else  we  must 
offend  both  the  natural  and  divine." 

COKE  says  : — 

"What  the  Parliament  doth,  shall  be  holden  for  naught,  when- 
ever it  shall  enact  that  which  is  contrary  to  the  rights  of  nature." 

HAMPDEN  says  : — 

"The  essence  of  all  law  is  justice.  What  is  not  justice  is  not 
law  J  and  what  is  not  law,  ought  not  to  be  obeyed." 

HARRINGTON  says  : — 

"All  men  naturally,  are  equal ;  for  though  nature  with  a  noble 
variety  has  made  ditfercnt  features  and  lineaments  of  men.  yet  as 
to  freedom,  she  has  made  every  one  alike,  and  given  them  the 
same  desires." 

FORTEscuE  says  : — 

"Those  rights  which  God  and  nature  have  established,  and 
which  are  therefore  called  natural  rights,  such  as  life  and  liberty. 
need  not  the  aid  of  human  laws  to  be  more  effectually  invested  in 
every  man  than  thej'  are  ;  neither  do  they  receive  any  additional 
strength  when  declared  by  the  municipal  laws  to  be  inviolable. 
On  the  contrary,  no  human  power  has  any  authority  to  abridge 
or  destroy  them,  unless  the  owner  himself  shall  commit  some  act 
that  amounts  to  a  forfeiture." 

Again,  he  says  : — 

^  The  law,  therefore,  which  supports  slavery  and  opposes  lib- 
erty, must  necessarily  be  condemned  as  cruel,  for  every  feeling 
of  human  nature  advocates  liberty.  Slavery  is  introduced  by  hu- 
man wickedness,  bu*  God  advocatns  liberty,  by  the  nature  which 
he  has  given  to  man  ' 

11* 


450                                TESTDIOXY    OF    THE    NATIONS 
BROUGHAM  SajS  I 

"  Tell  me  not  of  lights — talk  not  of  the  property  of  the  planter 
•n  his  slaves.  I  deny  the  right ;  I  acknowledge  not  the  property. 
In  vain  you  tell  me  of  laws  that  sanction  such  a  claim.  There  is 
a  law  above  all  the  enactments  of  human  codes,  the  same  through- 
out the  world,  the  same  in  all  times  ;  it  is  the  law  written  by  the 
finger  of  God  on  the  hearts  of  men  ;  and  by  that  law.  unchangeable 
and  eternal,  while  men  despise  fraud,  and  loathe  rapine,  and  ab- 
hor blood,  they  shall  reject  with  indignation  the  wild  and  guilty 
phantasy  that  man  can  hold  property  in  man." 

THE   VOICE   OF   IRELAND. 

BURKE  says  : — 

"  Slavery  is  a  state  so  improper,  so  degrading,  and  so  ruinous 
to  the  feelings  and  capacities  of  human  nature,  that  it  ought  not 
to  be  suffered  to  exist." 

cu-RRAN  says  : — 

••  I  speak  in  the  spirit  of  British  law,  which  makes  liberty 
commensurate  with  and  inseparable  from  British  soil ;  which 
proclaims  even  to  the  stranger  and  the  sojourner,  the  moment  he 
sets  his  foot  upon  British  earth,  that  the  ground  on  which  he 
treads  is  holy  and  consecrated  by  the  genius  of  Universal  Eman- 
cipation. No  matter  in  what  language  his  doom  may  have  been 
pronounced;  no  matter  what  complexion,  incompatible  with  free- 
dom, an  Indian  or  African  sun  may  have  burnt  upon  him  ;  no 
matter  in  what  disastrous  battle  his  liberty  may  have  been  cloven 
down  ;  no  matter  with  what  solemnities  he  may  have  been  de- 
voted upon  the  altar  of  slavery,  the  moment  he  touches  the  sacred 
soil  of  Britain,  the  altar  and  the  god  sink  together  in  the  dust ; 
his  soul  walks  abroad  in  her  own  majesty ;  and  he  stands  re- 
deemed, regenerated  and  disenthrall  ri  by  the  irresistible  genius 
of  Univcrsa  Emancipation.'' 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    NATIONS.  251 

The  PiiMin  University  Magazine  for  December,  185G, 
Bays  : — 

''  The  United  States  must  learn,  from  the  example  of  Rome, 
that  Cliristianity  and  the  paj^an  institution  of  slavery  cannot  co- 
exist toiTcther.  Tlie  Ivopublic  nuist  take  her  side  and  choose  her 
favorite  child  j  for  if  she  love  the  one,  she  must  hate  the  other." 

THE    VOICE    OF    SCOTLAND. 

BEATTiE  says  : — 

"Slavery  is  inconsistent  with  the  dearest  and  most  essential 
rights  of  man's  nature ;  it  is  detrimental  to  virtue  and  industry  ; 
it  hardens  the  heart  to  those  tender  sympathies  which  form  the 
most  lovely  part  of  human  character ;  it  involves  the  inno- 
cent in  hopeless  misery,  in  order  to  procure  wealth  and  pleasure 
for  the  authors  of  that  misery ;  it  seeks  to  degrade  into  brutes 
beings  whom  the  Lord  of  Heaven  and  Earth  endowed  with  ra- 
tional souls,  and  created  for  immortality;  in  short,  it  is  utterly 
repugnant  to  every  principle  of  reason,  religion,  humanity,  and 
conscience.  It  is  impossible  for  a  considerate  and  unprejudiced 
mind,  to  think  of  slavery  without  horror." 

MILLER  says  : — 

"Tlie  human  mind  revolts  at  a  serious  discussion  of  the. sub- 
ject of  slavery.  Every  individual,  whatever  be  his  country  or 
complexion,  is  entitled  to  freedom." 

MACKNiGHT  says  : — 

"  Men-stealers  are  inserted  among  the  daring  criminals  against 
whom  the  law  of  God  directed  its  awful  curses.  These  were 
persons  who  kidnapped  men  to  sell  them  for  slaves  ;  and  this 
practice  seems  inseparable  from  the  other  iniquities  and  oppres- 
sions of  slavery ;  nor  can  a  slave  dealer  easily  keep  free  from 
this  crminality,  i '  indeed  the  receiver  is  as  bad  as  the  thief." 


252  TESTIMONY   OF  THE   NATIONS. 

THE   YOICE    OF    FRANCE. 

LAFAYETTE  says  : 

"  I  would  never  have  drawn  my  sword  in  the  cause  o  America, 
if  I  could  have  conceived  that  thereby  I  was  founding  a  land  of 
slavery." 

Again,  while  in  the  prison  of  Magdeburg,  he  says  ; — 

"  I  know  not  what  disposition  has  been  made  of  my  plantation 
at  Cayenne  ;  but  I  hope  Madame  de  Lafayette  will  take  care  that 
the  negroes  who  cultivate  it  shall  preserve  their  liberty." 

0.  Lafayette,  grandson  of  General  Lafayette,  in  a  let- 
ter under  date  of  April  26th,  1851,  says  ; — 

"  This  great  question  of  the  Abolition  of  Negro  Slavery,  which 
has  my  entire  sympathy,  appears  to  me  to  have  established  its 
importance  throughout  the  world.  At  the  present  time,  the 
States  of  the  Peninsula,  if  I  do  not  deceive  myself,  are  the  only 
European  powers  who  still  continue  to  possess  slaves ;  and 
America,  while  continuing  to  uphold  slaver}^,  feels  daily,  more  and 
more  how  heavily  it  weighs  upon  her  destinies." 

MONTESQUIEU  asks  : — 

"What  civil  law  can  restrain  a  slave  from  running  away,  since 
ho  is  not  a  member  of  society  ?" 

Again,  he  says  : — 

"  Slavery  is  contrary  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  all  socie* 

ties." 

Again  ; — 

*'  In  democracies,  where  they  are  all  upon  an  equality,  slavery 
is  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution." 


TESTIilOXV      f   THE    NATION'S.  253 

Again  : — 

"  Nothing  puts  one  nearer  the  condition  of  a  brute  than  a  ways 
to  see  freemen  and  not  be  free." 

Again  : — 

'•  Even  the  earth  itself,  wliich  teems  with  profusion  under  the 
cultivating  hand  of  the  free  born  laborer,  shrinks  into  barrenness 
from  the  contaminating  sweat  of  a  slave." 

LOUIS  X.  issued  the  following  edict : — 

"  As  all  men  are  by  nature  free  born,  and  as  this  Kingdom  is 
called  the  Kingdom  of  Franks,  (freemen)  it  shall  be  so  in  realit}'. 
It  is  therefore  decreed  that  enfranchisement  shall  be  granted 
throughout  the  whole  Kingdom  upon  just  and  reasonable  terms." 

BUFFO N  says  : — 

'•  It  is  apparent  that  the  unfortunate  negroes  are  endowed  with 
excellent  hearts,  and  possess  the  seeds  of  every  human  virtue.  I 
cannot  write  their  history  without  lamenting  their  miserable 
condition."  "  Humanity  revolts  at  those  odious  oppressions  that 
result  from  avarice." 

ROUSSEAU  says : — 

'•  The  terms  slavery  and  right,  contradict  and  exclude  each 
other." 

BRissoT  says  : — 

'•Slavery,  in  all  its  forms,  in  ail  its  degrees,  is  a  violation  of 
divine  law  and  a  degradation  of  human  nature." 

THE    VOICE    OF    GERMANY. 

CR0TIU3  says  : — 

"  Those  are  men-stealers  who  abduct,  keep,  sell  or  buy  slaves 
or  free  men.     To  8*eal  a  m\n  is  the  highest  kind  of  theft." 


254  TESTIMONY    OF   THE    NATIONS. 

GOETHE  says  ; — 

Such  busy  multitudes  I  fain  would  see 
Stand  upon  free  soil  with  a  people  free." 

LUTHER  says  : — 

"Unjust  violence  is,  by  no  means,  the  ordinance  of  God,  and 
therefore  can  bind  no  one  in  conscience  and  right,  to  obey,  whe- 
ther the  command  comes  from  pope,  emperor,  king  or  master." 

An  able  German  writer  of  the  present  day,  says,  in  a 
recent  letter  to  his  friends  in  this  country  : — 

"  Consider  that  the  cause  of  American  liberty  is  the  cause  of 
universal  liberty  ;  its  failure,  a  triumph  of  despotism  everywhere. 
Remember  that  while  American  liberty  is  the  great  argument  of 
European  Democracy,  American  slavery  is  the  greater  argument 
of  its  despotism.  Remember  that  all  our  actions  should  be  gov- 
erned by  the  golden  rule,  whether  individual,  social,  or  political ; 
and  no  government,  and,  above  all,  no  republican  government,  is 
safe  in  the  hands  of  men  that  practically  deny  that  rule.  Will 
you  support  by  your  vote  a  system  that  recognizes  property  of 
man  in  man  ?  A  S3'stem  which  sanctions  the  sale  of  the  child  by 
its  own  father,  regardless  of  the  purpose  of  the  buyer  ?  What 
need  is  there  to  present  to  you  the  unmitigated  wrong  of  slavery  ? 
It  is  the  shame  of  our  age  that  argument  is  needed  against 
slavery. 

"  Liberty  is  no  exclusive  property  ;  it  is  the  property  of  man- 
kind of  all  ages.  She  is  immortal,  though  crushed,  can  never  die  ; 
though  banished,  she  will  return  ;  though  fettered,  she  will  yet 
be  free." 

THE   VOICE    OF   ITALY. 

CICERO  says  : — 

"  By  the  grand  laws  of  nature,  all  men  are  born  free,  and  this 
law  is  universal!  ^  binding  upon  all  men." 


TESTIMONY   OF   THE   NATIONS.  255 

Again,  he  says  :  — 

••Eternul  jaslicc  is  the  basis  of  all  human  laws." 

Again  : — 

"  Law  is  not  something  wrought  out  b}'  man's  ingenuity,  nor  is 
it  a  decree  of  the  people,  but  it  is  something  eternal,  governing 
the  world  by  the  wisdom  of  its  commands  and  prohibitions." 

Ag-ain  :— 

"  Whatever  is  just  is  also  the  true  law,  nor  can  this  true  law 
be  abrogated  by  any  wriiten  enactments." 

Again : — • 

*•  If  there  be  such  a  power  in  tlie  decrees  and  commands  of 
fools,  that  the  nature  of  things  is  changed  by  their  votes,  why  do 
they  not  decree  that  what  is  bad  and  pernicious  shall  be  regarded 
as  good  and  wholesome,  or  why,  if  the  law  can  make  wrong  right, 
can  it  not  make  bad  good?" 

Again:— 

"  Those  who  have  made  pernicious  and  unjust  decrees,  have 
made  anything  rather  than  laws." 

Again : — 

'•  The  law  of  all  nations  forbids  one  man  to  pursue  liis  advan- 
tage at  the  expense  of  another." 

LACTANTius  says  : — 

"  Justice  teaches  men  to  know  God  and  to  love  men,  to  love 
jind  assist  one  another,  being  all  equally  the  children  of  God." 

LEO  X.  says  : — 

'•  Xot  only  does  the  Christian  religion,  but  nature  herself  cry 
out  against  the  state  of  slavery ." 


256  TESTIMOXY    OF    THE    NATIONS. 

THE    VOICE    OF    GEEECE. 

SOCRATES  says : — 

"  Slayery  L  a  system  of  outrage  and  robbery." 

ARISTOTLE  says  : — 

"  It  is  neither  for  the  good,  nor  is  it  just,  seeing  all  men  are  by 
nature  alike,  and  equal,  that  one  should  be  lord  and  master  over 
others." 

poLYBius  says  : — • 

'  None  but  unprincipled  and  beastly  men  in  society  assume  the 
mastery  over  their  fellows,  as  it  is  among  bulls,  bears,  and  cocks." 

PLATO  says  : — ■ 

"Slavery  is  a  system  of  the  most  complete  injustice." 

From  each  of  the  above,  and  from  other  nations,  addi- 
tional testimony  is  at  hand  ;  but,  for  reasons  already 
assigned,  we  forbear  to  introduce  it.  Corroborative  of  the 
correctness  of  the  position  which  we  have  assumed,  even 
Persia  has  a  voice,  which  may  be  easily  recognized  in  the 
tones  of  her  immortal  Cyrus,  who  says  : 

"  To  light,  iii  V)rder  not  to  be  made  a  slave,  is  noble." 

Than  Great  Britain  no  nation  has  more  heartily  or  hon- 
orably repented  of  the  crime  of  slavery — no  nation,  on  the 
perception  of  its  error,  has  ever  acted  with  more  prompt 
magnanimity  to  its  outraged  and  unhappy  bondsmen. 
Entered  to  her  credit,  many  precious  jewels  of  liberty  re- 
main in  our  possession,  ready  to  be  delivered  when  called 
for  ;  of  their  value  some  idea  may  be  formed,  when  we 
state  that  the}"  are  filigreed  with  s-'ich  names  as  Wilber- 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    NATIONS.  257 

force,   Buxton,    Granville,    G rattan,    Camden,    Clarkson, 
Sharp,  Sheridan,  Sidney,  Martin,  and  Macaulay. 

Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  other  Southern  States, 
which  are  provided  with  lepuhlican  (!)  forms  of  govern- 
ment, and  which  have  abolished  IVeedom,  should  learn, 
from  the  history  of  the  monarchal  governments  of  the  Old 
World,  if  not  from  the  example  of  the  more  liberal  and 
enlightened  portions  of  the  New,  how  to  abolish  slavery. 
The  lesson  is  before  them  in  a  variety  of  exceedingly  in- 
teresting furms,  and,  sooner  or  later,  they  must  learn  it, 
cither  voluntarily  or  by  compulsion.  Virginia,  in  particu- 
lar, is  a  spoilt  child,  having  been  the  pet  of  the  General 
Government  for  the  last  sixty-eight  years  ;  and  like  most 
other  spoilt  children,  she  has  become  froward,  peevish, 
perverse,  sulky  and  irreverent — not  caring  to  know  her 
duties,  and  failing  to  perform  even  those  which  she  docs 
know.  Iler  6u{)eriors  perceive  that  the  abolition  of  sla- 
very would  be  a  blessing  to  her  ;  she  is,  however,  either 
too  ignorant  to  understand  the  truth,  or  else,  as  is  the 
more  probable,  her  false  pride  and  obstinacy  restrain  her 
from  acknowledging  it.  "What  is  to  be  done  ?  Shall 
ignorance,  or  prejudice,  or  obduracy,  or  willful  meanness, 
triumph  over  knowledge,  and  liberality,  and  guilelessness, 
and  laudable  enterprise  ?  No,  never  I  Assured  that  Vir- 
ginia and  all  the  other  slaveholding  States  are  doing 
wrong  every  day,  it  is  our  duty  to  make  them  do  right,  if 
we  have  the  power  ;  and  we  believe  we  have  the  power 
now  resident  within  their  own  borders.  What  are  tho 
opinions,  generaUy,  of  the  non-slavcholding  whites  ?  Let 
them  speak. 


258  TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CHURCHES. 


CHAPTER   VI. 


TESTIMONY     OF   THE    CHURCHES. 


'•Run  hence,  proclaim,  cry  it  about  the  streets. 
Some  to  the  common  pulpits,  and  cry  out, 
Liberty,  freedom,  and  enfranchisement !" 


In  quest  of  arguments  against  slavery,  we  have  perused 
the  works  of  several  eminent  Christian  writers  of  different 
denominations,  and  we  now  proceed  to  lay  before  the  reader 
the  result  of  a  portion  of  our  labor.  As  it  is  the  special 
object  of  this  chapter  to  operate  on,  to  correct  and  cleanse 
the  consciences  of  slaveholding  professors  of  religion,  we 
shall  adduce  testimony  only  from  the  five  churches  to 
which  they,  in  their  satanic  piety,  mostly  belong — the 
Presbyterian,  the  Episcopal,  the  Baptist,  the  Methodist, 
and  the  Roman  Catholic — all  of  which,  thank  Heaven,  are 
destined,  at  no  distant  day,  to  become  thoroughly  aboli- 
tionized.  With  few  exceptions,  all  the  other  Christian 
sects  are,  as  they  should  be,  avowedly  and  inflexibly  op- 
posed to  the  inhuman  institution  of  slavery.  The  Con- 
gregational, the  Quaker,  the  Lutheran,  the  Dutch  and 
German  Refcrmed,  the  Unitarian,  and  the  Universalist, 
especially,  ai  3  all  honorable,  able,  and  eloquent  defenders 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CnURlHES.  259 

of  the  natural  rights  of  man.     We  will  b'^giii  by  intro- 
ducing' a  mass  of 

PRESBYTERIAN   TESTIMONY. 

The  Jlev.  Albert  Barnes,  of  Pliiladelphia,  one  of  the  most 
loarned  Presbyterian  preachers  and  commentators  of  the 
day,  says  :- 

"There  is  a  deep  and  growing  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  mass 
of  mankind,  that  slavery  violates  the  great  laws  of  our  nature ; 
that  it  is  contrary  to  the  dictates  of  humanity  ;  that  it  is  essen- 
tially unjust,  oppressive,  and  cruel  ;  that  it  invades  the  rights  of 
liberty  with  which  the  Author  of  our  being  has  endowed  all  hu- 
man bcmgs  ;  and  that,  in  all  the  forms  in  which  it  has  ever  ex- 
isted, it  has  been  impossible  to  guard  it  from  what  its  friends 
and  advocates  would  call  ^  abiLses  of  the  system.'  It  is  a  viola- 
tion of  the  first  sentiments  expressed  in  our  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  on  which  our  fathers  founded  the  vindication  of 
their  own  conduct  in  an  appeal  to  arms.  It  is  at  war  with  all 
that  a  man  claims  lor  himself  and  fur  his  own  children  ;  and  it  is 
opposed  to  all  the  struggles  of  mankind,  in  all  ages,  for  freedom. 
The  claims  of  humanity  plead  against  it.  The  struggles  for  free- 
dom everywhere  in  our  world  condemn  it.  The  instinctive 
feeling  in  everj-  man's  own  bosom  in  regard  to  himself  is  a  con- 
demnation of  it.  The  noblest  deeds  of  valor,  and  of  patriotism 
in  our  own  land,  and  in  all  lands  where  men  have  struggled  for 
freedom,  are  a  condemnation  of  the  system.  All  that  is  noblo 
:n  man  is  opposed  to  it;  all  that  is  base,  oppressive,  and  cruel 
pleads  for  it. 

'•The  spirit  of  the  Xew  Testament  i3  against  slaver}',  and  the 
principles  of  the  New  Testament,  if  fairly  ajjplied,  would  abolish 
it.  In  the  Xew  Testament  no  man  is  commanded  to  purchase 
and  own  a  slave  ;  no  man  is  commended  as  adding  anything  to 
the  evidences  of  his  Christian  character,  or  as  performing  the 
appropriate  duty  of  a  Christian,  f^r  owning  one.  No  where  in 
the  New  Testament  is  the  institution  referred  to  as  a  good  one, 
or  as  a  desirable  one.     It  is  commonly — indeed,  it  is  almost  uni- 


2G0  TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CIIURlHES. 

versall}' — conceded  that  the  proper  application  oi  the  principles 
of  the  New  Testament  would  abolish  slavery  everywhere,  or  that, 
the  state  of  things  which  will  exist  when  the  Gospel  shall  be 
fairly  applied  to  all  the  relations  of  life,  slavery  will  not  be  found 
among  those  relations. 

"  Let  slavery  be  removed  from  the  church,  and  let  the  voice  of 
the  church,  with  one  accord,  be  lifted  up  in  favor  of  freedom  ; 
lot  the  church  be  wholly  detached  from  the  institution,  and  let 
there  be  adopted  by  all  its  ministers  and  members  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  Bible — as  I  believe  there  may  be  and  ought  to  be — 
that  shall  be  in  accordance  with  the  deep-seated  principles  of  our 
nature  in  fiivor  of  freedom,  and  with  our  own  aspirations  for  lib- 
erty, and  with  the  sentiments  of  the  world  in  its  onward  pro- 
gress in  regard  to  human  rights,  and  not  only  would  a  very 
material  objection  against  the  Bible  be  taken  away — and  one 
which  would  be  fatal  if  it  were  well  founded — but  the  establish- 
ment of  a  very  strong  argument  m  favor  of  the  Bible,  as  a  reve- 
lation from  God,  would  be  the  direct  result  of  such  a  position." 

Thomas  Scott,  the  celebrated  English  Presbyterian  Com- 
mentator, says  : — 

"  To  number  the  persons  of  men  with  beasts,  sheep,  and  horses, 
as  the  stock  of  a  farm,  or  with  bales  of  goods,  as  the  cargo  of  a 
ship,  is,  no  doubt,  a  most  detestable  and  anti-Christian  practice." 

From  a  resolution  denunciatory  of  slavery,  unanimously 
adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  in  1818,  Tve  make  the  following  extract  :— 

''  TVe  consider  the  voluntary  enslaving  of  one  part  of  the  human 
race  by  another  as  a  gross  violation  of  the  most  precious  and  sac- 
red rights  of  human  nature,  as  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  law 
of  God,  which  requires  us  to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves,  and 
as  totally  irreconcilable  with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ,  which  enjoins  that  '  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them.'  *  *  *  We 
rcjoic^  that  the  church  to  which  we  belong  commenced,  as  early 


TEsrwoyr  of  the  churches.  2G1 

as  atM  vn'-^fr  in  vhis  country,  tlic  good  work  of  cndcavorinpj  to 
put  an  end  to  .jlatcry,  ami  that  iu  the  same  work  nniny  ol'  its 
members  hcvve  ever  since  been,  and  now  are,  among  the  most  ac- 
tive, vigon^us,  and  ellicient  hiboivrs.  ♦  *  *  "We  earnestly  exhort 
thera  to  continue,  and,  if  possible,  to  increase,  their  exertions  to 
etTect  a  total  abolition  of  slavery." 

A  Cominitlce  of  the  Synod  of  Kentucky,  in  an  address 
^^  the  Presbyterians  ot  that  State,  says  : — 

•  That  our  negroes  will  be  worse  off,  if  emancipated,  is,  we  feel, 
but  a  specious  j)retext  for  lulling  our  own  pangs  of  conscience, 
and  answering  the  argument  of  the  philanthropist.  None  of  us 
believe  that  God  has  so  created  a  whole  race  that  it  Is  better  for 
them  to  remain  in  perpetual  bondage." 

EPISCOPAL   TESTIMOXY. 

BISHOP  noRSLEY  says  : — 

•■  Slavery  is  injustice,  which  no  consideration  of  policy  can  ex- 
tenuate." 

BISHOP  BLTLER  says  ; 

'•  Despicable  as  the  negroes  may  appear  in  our  eyes,  they  are 
the  creatures  of  God,  and  of  the  race  of  mankind,  for  whom  Christ 
died,  and  it  is  inexcusable  to  keep  them  in  ignorance  of  the  end 
for  which  they  were  made,  and  of  the  means  whereby  they  may 
become  partakers  of  the  general  redemption." 

BISHOP  P0RTEU3  says  : — 

'•The  Bible  classes  raen-stealers  or  slave-traders  among  the 
murderers  of  fathers  and  mothers,  and  the  most  profane  criminals 
on  earth." 

John  Jay,  Esq.,  of  the  City  of  Xpw-York — a  most  exem- 
plary Episcopalian — in  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "  Thoughts  on 


262  TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CHURCnSS. 

the  Duty  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  in  Relation  to  Slavery,^ 
says  :— 

**  Alas  !  for  the  expectation  that  she  would  conform  to  the  s\nv\t 
of  her  ancient  mother  !  She  has  not  merely  remained  a  mute  and 
careless  spectator  of  this  great  conflict  of  truth  and  justice  with 
h3'pocrisy  and  cruelty,  but  lier  very  priests  and  deacons  may  be 
seen  ministering  at  the  altar  of  slavery,  ofFering  their  talents  and 
influence  at  its  unholy  shrine,  and  openly  repeating  the  awful 
blasphemy,  that  the  precepts  of  our  Saviour  sanction  the  system 
of  American  slavery.  Her  Northern  clergy,  with  rare  exceptions, 
whatever  they  may  feel  on  the  subject,  rebuke  it  neither  in  pub- 
lic nor  in  private,  and  her  periodicals,  far  from  advancing  the 
progress  of  abolition,  at  times  oppose  our  societies,  impliedly  de 
fending  slavery,  as  not  incompatible  with  Christianity,  and  occa- 
sionally withholding  information  useful  to  the  cause  of  freedom." 

A  writer  in  a  late  number  of  "  The  Anti-Slavery  Church 
man,"  published  in  Geneva,  Wisconsin,  speaking  of  a  cor 
tain  portion  of  the  New  Testament,  says  : — 

"  This  passage  of  Paul  places  necessary  work  in  the  hands  of 
Gospel  ministers.  If  they  preach  the  whole  Gospel,  they  must 
preach  what  this  passage  enjoins — and  if  they  do  this,  they  must 
preach  against  American  slavery.  Its  being  connected  with  pol- 
itics does  not  shield  them.  Political  connections  cannot  place 
sin  under  protection.  They  cannot  throw  around  it  guards  that 
the  public  teachers  of  morals  may  not  pass.  Sin  is  a  violation 
of  God's  law — and  God's  law  must  be  proclaimed  and  enforced 
at  all  hazards.  This  is  the  business  of  the  messenger  of  God, 
and  if  anything  stands  in  its  way,  it  is  his  right,  rather  it  is  his 
solemn  commission,  to  go  forward — straightway  to  overpass  the 
lines  that  would  shut  him  out,  and  utter  his  warnings.  Many 
sins  there  are,  that,  in  like  manner,  might  be  shielded.  Fashion, 
and  rank,  and  business,  are  doing  their  part  to  keep  much  sin  in 
respectability,  and  excuse  it  from  the  attacks  of  God's  ministers. 
But  what  are  th?se,  that  they  sh.ouldseal  a  minister's  lips — what 
more  are  the  w    hes  ol  'ooliticians  ?" 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CniKCIlES.  2G3 

For  further  testimony  from  this  branch  of  the  Christian 
pvBtem,  if  desired,  we  refer  the  reader  to  the  Wcw  Dudley 
A.  Tyng",  tht-  Rev.  Evan  M.  Johnson,  and  the  Kev.  J.  Mc- 
Xaiiiara, — a  I  Broad  Church  Episcopalians,  whose  magic 
ihxpiencc  and  irresistible  arguments  bid  fair,  at  an  early 
day,  to  win  over  to  the  paths  of  progressive  freedom,  truth, 
justice  and  humanity,  the  greater  number  of  their  Iligh 
and  Low  Church  brethren. 

BAPTIST   TESTIMONY. 

Concerning  a  certain  text,  the  Ticv.  Mr.  Brisbane,  once 
a  slaveholding  Baptist  in  South  Carolina,  says  : — 

'*  Paul  was  spcakinp;  of  the  law  as  having  been  made  for  men- 
stealcrs.  Where  is  the  record  of  that  law  ?  It  is  in  Exodus 
xxi.  IG,  and  in  these  words  :  '  He  that  stcaleth  a  man,  and  selleth 
him,  or  if  he  be  found  in  his  possession,  he  shall  surely  be  put 
to  death.'  Here  it  will  be  perceived  that  it  was  a  crime  to  sell 
the  man,  for  which  the  seller  must  suffer  death.  But  it  was  no  less 
a  crime  to  hold  him  as  a  slave,  for  this  also  was  punishable  with 
death.  A  man  may  be  kidnapped  out  of  slavery  into  freedom. 
There  was  no  law  against  that.  And  why  ?  Because  kidnap- 
ping a  slave  and  placing  him  in  a  condition  of  freedom,  was  only 
to  restore  him  to  his  lost  rights.  But  if  the  man  who  takes  him 
})ecomes  a  slaveholder,  or  a  slave  seller,  then  he  is  a  criminal, 
liable  to  the  penalty  of  deatli,  because  he  robs  the  man  of  liberty. 
Perhaps  some  will  say  this  law  was  onl}'  applicable  to  the  first 
holder  of  the  slave,  that  is,  the  original  kidnapper,  but  not  to  his 
successors  who  might  have  purchased  or  inherited  him.  But 
what  is  k'.Inapping?  Suppose  1  propose  to  a  neighbor  to  give 
liim  a  certain  sum  of  monc}'  if  he  will  steal  a  white  child  in  Car- 
r.lina  and  dr'livcr  him  to  me.  lie  steals  him  ;  I  pay  him  the 
money  upon  his  delivering  the  child  to  me.  Is  it  not  my  act  as 
fully  as  his?  Am  I  not  also  the  thief?  But  does  it  alter  the 
case  whether  I  agree   before   hand  or  not,  to  jiay  him   for  tho 


264  TESTIMONY   OF   TEE    CHURCHES. 

child?  He  steals  him,  and  then  sells  him  to  me.  He  is  found 
by  his  parents  in  my  hands.  Will  it  avail  me  to  say  T  purchased 
him  and  paid  my  money  for  him  ?  AVill  it  not  be  asked,  Do  you 
not  know  that  a  white  person  is  not  merchantable  ?  And  shall  I 
not  have  to  pay  the  damage  for  detaining  that  child  in  my  ser- 
vice as  a  slave  ?  Assuredly,  not  only  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  but 
in  the  judgment  of  the  whole  community,  I  would  be  regarded  a 
criminal.  So  when  one  man  steals  another  and  offers  him  for 
sale,  no  one,  in  view  of  the  Divine  law,  can  buy  him,  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  Divine  law  forbids  that  man  shall  in  the  first  place 
be  made  a  merchantable  article.  The  inquiry  must  be,  if  I  buy, 
I  buy  in  violation  of  the  Divine  law,  and  it  will  not  do  for  me 
to  plead  that  I  bought  him.  I  have  him  in  possession,  and  that  is 
enough,  God  condemns  me  for  it  as  a  man-stealer.  My  having 
him  in  possession  is  evidence  against  me,  and  the  Mosaic  law 
says,  if  he  be  found  in  my  hands,  I  must  die.  Now,  when  Paul 
said  the  law  was  made  for  men-stealers,  was  it  not  also  saying  the 
law  was  made  for  slaveholders  1  I  am  not  intending  to  ap- 
ply this  term  in  harsh  spirit.  But  I  am  bound,  as  I  fear  God 
to  spoak  what  I  am  satisfied  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  apostle." 

In  his  "Elements  of  Moral  Science,"  the  Rev.  Francis 
Wayland,  D.D.,  one  of  the  most  erudite  and  distinguished 
Baptists  now  living",  says  : — 

"  Domestic  slavery  proceeds  upon  the  principle  that  the  mas 
ter  has  a  right  to  control  the  actions,  physical  and  intellectual,  of 
the  slave,  for  his  own,  that  is,  the  master's  individual  benefit ; 
and,  of  course,  that  the  happiness  of  the  master,  when  it  comes 
in  competition  with  the  happiness  of  the  slave,  extinguishes  in 
the  latter  the  right  to  pursue  it.  It  supposes,  at  best,  that  the 
relation  between  master  and  slave,  is  not  that  which  exists  be 
tween  man  and  man,  but  is  a  modification,  at  least,  of  that  which 
exists  between  man  and  the  brutes. 

"  Now,  this  manifestly  supposes  that  the  two  classes  of  beings 
are  created  with  dissimilar  rights :  that  the  master  posseses 
rights  which  have  never  been  conceded  by  the  slave ;  and  that 


TEi-TlMONY    OF   THE    CHCRCHES.  S95 

the  !.lavo  has  no  rights  at  all  over  the  means  of  happiness  which 
God  has  piven  him,  whenever  these  means  of  happiness  can  bo 
renilered  availiibl«»  to  tlie  service  of  his  master.  It  supposes  that 
the  Creator  intended  one  human  being  to  govern  the  physical, 
intellectual  and  moral  actions  of  as  many  other  human  beings  aa 
by  purchase  he  can  bring  within  his  physical  power ;  and  that 
one  human  bving  may  thus  acquire  a  right  to  sacrifice  the  happi- 
ness of  any  number  of  other  human  beings,  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  his  own.  Slavery  thus  violates  the  personal  liberty 
of  man  as  a  ph3-sical.  intellectual,  and  moral  being. 

"It  purports  to  give  to  the  master  a  right  to  control  the  physical 
labor  of  the  slave,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  happiness  of  the  slave, 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  happiness  of  the  master.  It  subjects  the 
amount  of  labor,  and  the  kind  of  labor,  and  the  remuneration 
for  labor,  entirely  to  tlie  will  of  the  one  party,  to  the  entire  ex- 
clusion of  the  will  of  the  other  party. 

**  But  if  this  right  in  the  master  over  the  slave  be  conceded 
there  are  of  course  conceded  all  other  rights  necessary  to  insure 
its  possession.  Hence,  inasmuch  as  the  slave  can  be  held  in  this 
condition  onl}'  while  he  remains  in  the  lowest  state  of  mental  im- 
becility, it  supposes  the  master  to  have  the  right  to  control  his 
intellectual  development,  just  as  far  as  may  be  necessary  to  se- 
cure entire  subjection.  Thus,  it  supposes  the  slave  to  have  no 
right  to  use  his  intellect  for  the  production  of  his  own  happiness  ; 
but,  only  to  use  it  in  such  manner  a,5  may  conduce  to  his  master's 
profit. 

And.  moreover,  inasmuch  as  the  acquisition  of  the  knowledge 
of  his  duty  to  God  could  not  be  freely  made  without  the  acqui- 
«tion  of  other  knowledge,  which  might,  if  universally  diffused, 
endanger  the  control  of  the  master,  slavery  supposes  the  master 
to  have  the  right  to  determine  how  much  knowledge  of  his  duty 
a  slave  shall  obtain,  the  manner  in  wliich  he  shall  obtain  it,  and 
tlie  manner  in  which  he  shall  discharge  that  duty  after  he  shall 
have  obtained  a  knowledge  of  it.  It  thus  subjects  the  duty  of 
man  to  God  entirely  to  the  will  of  man  ;  and  this  for  the  sake  of 
pecuniary  profit.  It  renders  the  eternal  hapj)inesA  of  the  one 
party  subservient  to  the  temporal  happiness  of  the  Pther.     And 

12 


266  TESTIMONT   OF  THE   CHURCHES. 

this  principle  is  commonlj  carried  into  effect  in  g  oveL  >Iding 
countries. 

If  argnmentwere  necessary  to  show  that  such  a  system  asthia 
must  be  at  -variance  with  the  ordinance  of  God,  it  might  be  easily 
drawn  from  the  effects  which  it  produces  both  upon  morals  and 
national  wealth. 

Its  effects  must  be  disastrous  upon  the  morals  of  both  parties. 
By  presenting  objects  on  whom  passion  may  be  satiated  without 
resistance  and  without  redress,  it  cultivates  in  the  master,  pride, 
anger,  cruelty,  selfishness  and  licentiousness.  By  accustoming 
the  slave  to  subject  his  moral  principles  to  the  will  of  another, 
it  tends  to  abolish  in  him  all  moral  distinction  ;  and  thus  fosters 
in  him  lying,  deceit,  hj'pocrisy,  dishonesty,  and  a  willingness  to 
yield  himself  up  to  minister  to  the  appetites  of  his  master. 

The  effects  of  slavery  on  national  wealthy  may  be  easily  seen 
from  the  following  considerations  : — 

Instead  of  imposing  upon  all  the  necessit}'  of  labor,  it  restricts 
the  number  of  laborers,  that  is  of  producers,  within  the  smallest 
possible  limit,  by  rendering  labor  disgraceful. 

It  takes  from  the  laborers  the  natural  stimulus  to  labor,  namely 
the  desire  in  the  individual  of  improving  his  condition  ;  and  sub- 
stitutes, in  the  place  of  it,  that  motive  which  is  the  least  opera- 
tive and  the  least  constant,  namely,  the  fear  of  punishment  with- 
out the  consciousness  of  moral  delinquency. 

It  removes,  as  far  as  possible,  from  both  parties,  the  disposition 
and  the  motives  to  frugality.  ^Neither  the  master  learns  frugality 
from  the  necessity  of  labor,  nor  the  slave  from  the  benefits  which 
it  confers.  And  here,  while  the  one  party  wastes  from  ignorance 
of  the  laws  of  acquisition,  and  the  other  because  he  can  have  no 
motive  to  economy,  capital  must  accumulate  but  slowly,  if  indeed 
it  accumulate  at  all. 

No  country,  not  of  great  fertility,  can  If/ng  sustain  a  large  slave 
population.  Soils  of  more  than  ordinary  fertilit}^  can  not  sustain 
it  long,  after  the  richness  of  the  soil  has  been  exhausted.  Hence, 
slavery  in  this  country  is  acknowledged  to  have  impoverished 
many  of  our  most  valuable  districts  ;  and,  hence,  it  is  continually 
migrating  from  the  older  settlements,  to  those  new  and  untilled 
regions,  where  tl  e  accumulated  i":.anure  of  centuries  of  vegetation 


TESTIMOXY    OF   THE    CHTRCHES.  207 

has  formed  a  soil,  whose  productiveness  may.  for  k  nh  le,  sustain 
a  system  at  variance  with  the  laws  of  nature.  Many  of  our  free 
and  of  oiir  slaveholding  States  were  peopled  at  about  the  same 
time.  The  slaveholding  States  had  every  advantaj^e,  both  in  soil 
and  climate,  over  their  neighbors.  And  yet  the  accumulation  of 
capital  has  been  greatly  in  favor  of  the  latter.  If  any  one  doubts 
whether  this  diflerence  be  owing  to  the  use  of  slave  labor,  let 
him  ask  himstlf  what  would  have  been  the  condition  of  the  slave- 
holding  States,  at  this  moment,  if  they  had  been  inhabited,  from 
the  beginning,  by  an  industrious  yeomanry;  each  one  holding  his 
own  land,  and  each  one  tilling  it  with  the  labor  of  his  own  hands. 

The  moral  precepts  of  the  Bible  are  diametrically  opposed  to 
slavery.  They  are,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  and 
oil  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do 
ye  even  so  unto  them. 

The  application  of  these  precepts  is  universal.  Our  neighbor 
is  every  one  uhom  we  may  henejit.  The  obligation  respects  all 
things  whatsoever.  The  precept,  then,  manifestly,  extends  to 
meii^  as  mcit,  or  men  in  every  condiiion;  and  if  to  all  things 
whatsoever,  certainly  to  a  thing  so  important  as  the  right  to  per- 
sonal liberty. 

Again.  By  this  precept,  it  is  made  our  duty  to  cherish  as 
tender  and  delicate  a  respect  for  the  right  which  the  meanest  in- 
dividual possesesover  the  means  of  happiness  bestowed  upon  him 
by  God,  as  we  cherish  for  our  own  right  over  our  own  means  of 
happiness,  or  as  we  desire  any  other  individual  to  cherish  for  it. 
Now,  were  this  precept  obeyed,  it  is  manifest  that  slavery  could 
not  in  fact  exist  for  a  single  instant.  The  principle  of  the  pre- 
cept is  absolutely  subversive  of  the  principle  of  slavery.  That 
of  the  one  is  the  entire  equality  of  right;  that  of  the  other,  the 
entire  absorption  of  the  rights  of  one  in  the  rights  of  the  other. 

If  any  one  doubts  respecting  the  bearing  of  the  Scripture  pre- 
cei»t  upon  this  case,  a  few  plain  questions  may  throw  additional 
light  upon  the  subject.     For  instance, — 

"Do  the  precepts  and  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  allow  me  to  de- 
rive my  support  from  a  system  which  extorts  lalor  from  my  fel- 
low-men, wi'hout  allowing  them  any  voice  in  the  equivalent 
which  they  shal    recbive  ;  »nd  which  can  only  be  sustained  by 


268  TESTIMONT   OF  THE   CHURCHES. 

keeping  them  in  a  state  of  mental  degradation,  and  by  shuttLij 
them  out,  in  a  great  degree,  from  the  means  of  salvation  ? 

"  Would  the  master  be  willing  that  another  person  should  sub- 
ject him  to  slavery,  for  the  same  reasons,  and  on  the  same  grounds 
that  he  holds  his  slave  in  bondage  ? 

*'  Would  the  Gospel  allow  us,  if  it  wert  in  our  power,  to  reduce 
our  fellow-citizens  of  our  own  color  to  slavery  ?  If  the  gospel  be 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  principle  of  slavery,  it  must  be  op- 
posed to  the  practice  of  slavery  ;  and  therefore,  were  the  princi-j 
pies  of  the  gospel  fully  adopted,  slavery  could  not  exist.  i 

'•  The  very  course  which  the  gospel  takes  on  this  subject,  seema 
to  have  been  the  only  one  that  could  have  been  taken,  in  order 
to  effect  the  universal  abolition  of  slavery.  The  gospel  was  de- 
signed, not  for  one  race,  or  for  one  time,  but  for  all  races,  and  for 
all  times.  It  looked  not  at  the  abolition  of  this  form  of  evil  for 
that  age  alone,  but  for  its  universal  abolition.  Hence,  the  impor- 
tant object  of  its  Author  was,  to  gain  it  a  lodgment  in  every  part 
of  the  known  world  ;  so  that,  by  its  universal  diffusion  among 
all  classes  of  society,  it  might  quietly  and  peacefully  modify  and 
subdue  the  evil  passions  of  men ;  and  thus,  without  violence, 
work  a  revolution  in  the  whole  mass  of  mankind. 

*'  If  the  system  be  wrong,  as  we  have  endeavored  to  show,  if 
it  be  at  variance  with  our  duty  both  to  God  and  to  man,  it  must 
be  abandoned.  If  it  be  asked  when,  I  ask  again,  when  shall  a 
man  begin  to  cease  doing  wrong?  Is  not  the  answer,  immedi- 
ately ?  If  a  man  is  injuring  us,  do  we  ever  doubt  as  to  the  time 
when  he  ought  to  cease  ?  There  is  then  no  doubt  in  respect  to 
the  time  when  we  ought  to  cease  inflicting  injury  upon  others." 

Abraham  Booth,  an  eminent  theological  writer  of  the 
Baptist  persuasion,  says  : — 

"  I  have  not  a  stronger  conviction  of  scarcely  anything,  *ihan 
that  slaveholding  (except  when  the  slave  has  forfeited  his  lib- 
erty b}'  crimes  against  society)  is  wicked  and  inconsistent  with 
Christian  character.  To  me  it  is  evident,  that  whoever  would 
purchase  ar  innocent    )lark  man  to  make  him  a  slave,  would 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CHURCHES.  2G9 

Trith  cqn.ll  readiness  purchase  a  white  one  for  the  same  pii  'pose 
could  he  do  it  with  equal  impunity,  and  no  more  disgrace." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  of  the  Baptists 
of  Virginia,  in  1789,  the  following  resolution  was  oQered 
by  Eld.  John  Lclaud,  and  adopted  : — 

"  Resolved,  That  slavery  is  a  violent  deprivation  of  the  rights 
of  nature,  and  inconsistent  with  reptiblican  government,  and 
therefore  we  recommend  it  to  our  brethren  to  make  use  of  every 
measure  to  extirpate  this  horrid  evil  from  the  land  ;  and  pmy 
Almighty  God  that  our  honorable  legislature  may  have  it  in 
their  power  to  proclaim  the  great  jubilee,  consistent  with  the 
principles  of  good  policy." 

METHODIST   TESTIMONT. 

John  Wesley,  the  celebrated  founder  of  Methodism, 
Bays  : — 

^  Men  buyers  are  exactly  on  a  level  with  men  stealers." 

Again,  he  says  : — 

"  American  Slavery  is  the  vilest  that  ever  saw  the  sun  ;  it  con- 
stitutes the  sum  of  all  villanies." 

The  learned  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  author  of  a  voluminous 
commentary  on  the  Scriptures,  says  : — 

"  Slave-dealers,  whether  those  who  carry  on  the  traflRc  in  hu- 
man flesh  and  blood  ;  or  those  who  steal  a  person  in  order  to 
sell  him  into  bondage ;  or  those  who  buy  such  stolen  men  or 
women,  no  matter  of  what  color,  or  what  country;  or  the  nations 
who  legalize  or  connive  at  such  trafBc  ;  all  these  are  men-steal- 
ers,  and  God  classes  them  with  the  most  flagitious  of  mortals." 

One  of  the  rales  laid  down  in  the  Methodist  Discipli^o 
as  amended  ii:  1784,  was  ae  follows  : — 


2T0  TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CHURCHES. 

"  Every  member  of  our  Society  who  has  slaves  in  his  posses- 
Bion,  shall,  within  twelve  months  after  notice  given  to  him  by 
the  assistant,  legally  execute  and  record  an  instrument,  whereby 
he  emancipates  and  sets  free  every  slave  in  his  possession." 

Another  rule  was  in  these  words  : — 

"  No  person  holding  slaves  shall  in  future  be  admitted  into 
Society,  or  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  till  he  previously  complies  with 
these  rules  concerning  slavery." 

The  answer  to  the  question — "  What  shall  be  done  with 
those  who  buy  or  sell  slaves,  or  give  them  away" — is 
couched  in  the  following  language  : — 

"  They  are  immediately  to  be  expelled,  unless  they  buy  tnem 
on  purpose  to  free  them." 

In  1785,  the  voice  of  this  church  was  heard  as  follows ; — 

"  We  do  hold  in  the  deepest  abhorrence  the  practice  of  slave- 
ry, and  shall  not  cease  to  seek  its  destruction,  by  all  wise  and 
prudent  means." 

In  1791,  the  Discipline  contained  the  following  whole- 
some paragraph  : — 

"The  preachers  and  other  members  of  our  Society  are  re 
quested  to  consider  the  subject  of  negro  slavery,  with  deep 
attention,  and  that  they  impart  to  the  General  Conference, 
through  the  medium  of  the  Yearly  Conferences,  or  otherwise, 
any  important  thoughts  on  the  subject,  that  the  Conference  may 
have  full  light,  in  order  to  take  further  steps  towards  eradica- 
ting this  enormous  evil  from  that  part  of  the  Church  of  God  with 
which  they  are  connected.  The  Annual  Conferences  are  directed 
to  draw  up  addresses  for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
to  the  legislatures  of  those  States  in  which  no  general  laws  have 
been  passed  for  that  purpose.  These  addresses  shall  urge,  in 
the  most  n^spectful  but  pointed  manner,  the  necessity  of  a  law 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CHURCHES.  271 

foi  the  pra  Jual  emancipation  of  slaves.  Proper  committees  shall 
be  apjiointeil  by  the  Annual  Conferences,  out  of  the  most  respect- 
able of  our  friends,  for  cunduo  inj;  the  business  ;  and  presiding 
elders,  elders,  deacons,  and  travelinj^  preachers,  shall  procure  as 
many  proper  sijjnatures  as  possible  to  the  addresses,  and  give  all 
the  assistance  in  their  power,  in  every  respect,  to  aid  the  com- 
mittees, and  to  forward  the  blessed  undertaking.  Let  this  be 
continued  from  year  to  year,  till  the  desired  end  be  accom- 
plished." 

CATHOUC   TESTIMONY. 

It  has  been  only  about  twenty  years  since  Pope  Greg- 
ory XVI.  immortalized  himself  by  issuing  the  famous  Bull 
against  slavery,  from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : — • 

"  Placed  as  we  are  on  the  Supreme  seat  of  the  apostles,  and 
acting,  though  by  no  merits  of  our  own,  as  the  vicegerent  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  who,  through  his  great  mercy,  con- 
descended to  make  himself  man,  and  to  die  for  the  redemption 
of  the  world,  we  regard  as  a  duty  devolving  on  our  pastoral 
functions,  that  we  endeavor  to  turn  aside  our  faithful  flocks  en- 
tirely from  the  inhuman  traffic  in  negroes,  or  any  other  human 
beings  whatever.  *  *  *  In  progress  of  time,  as  the 
clouds  of  heathen  superstition  became  gradually  dispersed,  cir- 
cumstances reached  that  point,  that  during  several  centuries 
there  were  no  slaves  allowed  amongst  the  great  majority  of  the 
Christian  nations  ;  but  with  grief  we  are  compelled  to  add,  that 
there  afterwards  arose,  even  among  the  faithful,  a  race  of  men, 
who,  basely  blinded  by  the  appetite  and  desire  of  sordid  lucre, 
difl  not  hesitate  to  reduce,  in  remote  regions  of  the  earth,  In- 
dians, negroes,  and  other  wretched  beings,  to  the  misery  of  sla- 
very ;  or  finding  the  trade  established  and  augmented,  to  assist 
*.he  shameful  crime  of  others.  Nor  did  many  of  the  most  glori 
OU3  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs  omit  severely  to  reprove  their  con- 
duct, as  injurious  to  their  souls'  health,  and  disgraceful  to  the 
Christian  name  Among  these  may  be  especially  quoted  the 
bull  of  Paul  lU    which  bears  the  date  of  the  2'Jlh  of  May,  1537 


272 


TESTIMONY    OF    THE    CHURCHES. 


addressed  to  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Toledc  ,  and  another 
still  more  comprehensive,  by  Urban  YIIL,  dated  the  22d  of  April, 
1G36,  to  the  collector  Jurius  of  the  Apostolic  chamber  in  Portu- 
gal, most  severely  castigating  by  name  those  who  presumed  to 
subject  either  East  or  "West  Indians  to  slavery,  to  sell,  buy,  ex- 
change, or  give  them  avray,  to  separate  them  from  their  wives 
and  children,  despoil  them  of  their  goods  and  property,  to  bring 
or  transmit  them  to  other  places,  or  by  any  means  to  deprive 
them  of  liberty,  or  retain  thera  in  slavery ;  also  most  severely 
castigating  those  who  should  presume  or  dare  to  afford  council, 
aid,  favor  or  assistance,  under  any  pretext,  or  borrowed  color,  to 
those  doing  the  aforesaid  ;  or  should  preach  or  teach  that  it  is 
lawful,  or  should  otherwise  presume  or  dare  to  co-operate,  by 
any  possible  means,  with  the  aforesaid.  *  *  *  Where- 
fore, we,  desiring  to  divert  this  disgrace  from  the  whole  confines 
of  Christianity,  having  summoned  several  of  our  venerable  broth- 
ers, their  Eminences  the  Cardinals,  of  the  H.  R.  Church,  to  our 
council,  and,  having  maturely  deliberated  on  the  whole  matter, 
pursuing  the  footsteps  of  our  predecessors,  admonished  by  our 
apostolical  authority,  and  urgently  invoke  in  the  Lord,  all  Chris- 
tians, of  whatever  condition,  that  none  henceforth  dare  to  subject 
to  slavery,  unjustly  persecute,  or  despoil  of  their  goods,  Indians, 
negroes,  or  other  classes  of  men,  or  be  accessories  to  others,  or 
furnish  them  aid  or  assistance  in  so  doing ;  and  on  no  account 
henceforth  to  exercise  that  inhuman  traffic  by  which  negroes  are 
reduced  to  slavery,  as  if  they  were  not  men,  but  automata  or  chat- 
tels, and  are  sold  in  defiance  of  all  the  laws  of  justice  and  human- 
ity, and  devoted  to  severe  and  intolerable  labors.  "We  further 
reprobate,  by  our  apostolical  authority",  all  the  above-described 
offences  as  utterly  unworthy  of  the  Christian  name;  and  by  the 
same  authority  we  rigidly  prohibit  and  interdict  all  and  every  in- 
dividual, whether  ecclesiastical  or  laical,  from  presuming  to  de- 
fend that  commerce  in  negro  slaves  under  pretence  or  borrowed 
color,  or  to  teach  or  publish  in  any  manner,  publicly  or  privately, 
things  contrary  to  the  admonitions  which  we  have  given  in  these 
letters. 

"  And,  Inally,  that  these,  our  letters,  may  be  rendered  more 
appare'i*    X.  all,  and  that  no  person  may  allege  any  ignorance 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CnURCHES.  273 

thereoC  we  decree  and  order  that  it  shall  be  published  accordinj^ 
to  custom,  and  copies  thereof  be  properly  affixed  to  the  gates  of 
St.  Peter  and  of  the  Apostolic  Chancel,  every  and  in  like  manner 
to  the  General  Court  of  Mount  Citatorio,  and  in  the  tield  of  tlie 
Campus  Florae  and  also  through  the  city,  by  one  of  our  heralds, 
according  to  aforesaid  custom. 

"Given  at  Rome,  at  the  Palace  of  Santa  Maria  Major,  under 
the  seal  of  the  fisherman,  on  the  3d  day  of  December,  1837,  and 
iu  the  ninth  year  of  our  pontificate. 

"  Countersigned  by  Cardinal  A.  Lambruschini." 

We  have  already  quoted  the  language  of  Pope  Leo  X., 
who  says  : — 

"  Not  only  does  the  Christian  religion,  but  nature  herself  cry 
:)ut  against  the  State  of  slavery." 

The  Abbe  Raynal  says  : — 

"  He  who  supports  slavery  is  the  enemy  of  the  human  race. 
He  divides  it  into  two  societies  of  legal  assassins,  the  oppressors 
and  the  oppressed.  I  shall  not  be  afraid  to  cite  to  the  tribunal 
of  reason  and  justice  those  governments  which  tolerate  this 
cruelty,  or  which  even  are  not  ashamed  to  make  it  the  basis  of 
their  power." 

From  the  proceedings  of  a  Massachusetts  Anti-slavery 
(Convention  in  1855,  we  make  the  following  extract  ; — 

"  Henry  Kemp,  a  Roman  Catholic,  came  forward  to  defend  the 
Romish  Church  in  reply  to  Mr.  Foster.  lie  claimed  that  the 
Catholic  Church  is  thoroughly  anti-slavery — as  thoroughly  as 
even  his  friend  Foster." 

Thus  manfully  do  men  of  pure  hearts  and  noble  minds, 

whether  in  Church  or  State,  and  without  regard  to  sect  or 

party,  lift  up  their  voices  against  the  wicked  and  pernicious 

institution  of  human  slavery.     Thus  they  speak,  and  thus 

12* 


2*74 


TESTIMONY   OF  THE   CHURCHES. 


they  are  obliged  to  speak,  if  they  speak  at  all ;  it  is  only 
the  voice  of  Nature,  Justice,  Truth,  and  Love,  that  issues 
from  them.  The  divine  principle  in  man  prompts  him  to 
speak  and  strike  for  Freedom  ;  the  diabolical  principle 
within  him  prompts  him  to  speak  and  strike  for  slavery. 

From  those  churches  which  are  now — as  all  churches 
ought  to  be,  and  will  be,  ere  the  world  becomes  Christian- 
ized— thoroughly  imbued  with  the  principles  of  freedom, 
we  do  not,  as  already  intimated,  deem  it  particularly  ne- 
cessary to  bring  forward  new  arguments  in  opposition  to 
slavery.  If,  however,  the  reader  would  be  pleased  to  hear 
from  the  churches  to  which  we  chiefly  allude — and,  by  the 
bye,  he  might  hear  from  them  with  much  profit  to  himself 
— we  respectfully  refer  him  to  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
George  B.  Cheever,  Joseph  P.  Thompson,  Theodore  Parker, 
E.  H.  Chapin,  and  H.  W.  Bellows,  of  the  Noith,  and  to  M 
D.  Conway,  John  G.  Fee,  James  S.  Davis,  Daniel  Wilson, 
and  W.  E.  Lincoln,  of  the  South.  All  these  reverend  gen- 
tlemen, ministers  of  different  denominations,  feel  it  their 
duty  to  preach  against  slavery,  and,  to  their  honor  be  it 
said,  they  do  preach  against  it  with  unabated  zeal  and 
success.  Our  earnest  prayer  is,  that  Heaven  may  enable 
them,  their  cotemporaries  and  successors,  to  preach  against 
it  with  such  energy  and  effect,  as  will  cause  it  to  di sap- 
pea-  forevei  ^rom  the  soil  of  our  Republic. 


BIBLE    TESTIMONY. 


CHAPTER    YII. 


BIBLE     TESTIMONY. 


Every  person  who  has  read  the  Bible,  and  who  has  a 
proper  understanding  of  its  leading  moral  precepts,  feels, 
in  his  own  conscience,  that  it  is  the  only  original  and  com- 
plete anti-slavery  text-book.  In  a  crude  state  of  society — 
in  a  barbarous  age — when  men  were  in  a  manner  destitute 
of  wholesome  laws,  either  human  or  divine,  it  is  possible 
that  a  mild  form  of  slavery  may  have  been  tolerated,  and 
even  regulated,  as  an  institution  clothed  with  the  impor- 
tance of  temporary  recognition  ;  but  the  Deity  never  ap- 
proved it,  and,  for  the  very  reason  that  it  is  impossible 
for  him  to  do  wrong,  he  never  will,  never  can  approve  it. 
The  worst  system  of  servitude  of  which  we  have  any  ac- 
count in  the  Bible — and,  by  the  way,  it  furnishes  no 
account  of  anything  so  bad  as  slavery  (the  evil-one  and 
his  hot  home  alone  excepted) — was  far  less  rigorous  and 
atDcious  than  that  now  established  in  the  Southern  States 
of  this  Confederacy.  Even  that  system,  however,  the 
worst,  which  seems  to  have  been  practiced  to  a  considera- 
ble extent  by  tl  ose  venerable  old  fogies,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  was    le  of  the  monstrous  inventions  of  Satan 


276  BIBLE   TESTIMONY. 

that  God  "  winked"  at ;  and,  to  the  mind  of  the  oiblical 
scholar,  nothing  can  be  more  evident  than  that  He  deter- 
mined of  old,  that  it  should,  in  due  time,  be  abolished. 
To  say  that  the  Bible  sanctions  slavery  is  to  say  that  the 
Bun  loves  darkness  ;  to  say  that  one  man  was  created  to 
domineer  over  another  is  to  call  in  question  the  justice, 
mercy,  and  goodness  of  God. 

We  will  now  listen  to  a  limited  number  of  the 

PRECEPTS   AND    SAYINGS    OF   THE    OLD   TESTAMENT. 

''  Proclaim  liberty  throughout  all  the  land,  unto  all  the  inhajbit- 
ants  thereof." 

"  Let  the  oppressed  go  free." 

"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

"  Thou  shalt  not  respect  the  person  of  the  poor,  nor  honor  the 
person  of  the  mighty ;  but  in  righteousness  shalt  thou  judge  thy 
neighbor." 

"  The  wages  of  him  that  is  hired  shall  not  abide  with  thee  all 
night  until  the  morning." 

"  Envy  thou  not  the  oppressor,  and  choose  none  of  his  ways." 

'•  Do  justice  to  the  afflicted  and  needy ;  rid  them  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  wicked." 

"  Execute  judgment  and  justice ;  take  away  your  exactions 
from  my  people,  saith  the  Lord  God." 

'•  Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  ;  ye  have  not  hearkened  unto 
me,  in  proclaiming  liberty,  every  one  to  his  brother,  and  every 
man  to  his  neighbor  :  behold,  I  proclaim  a  liberty  for  j'ou,  saith 
the  Lord,  to  the  sword,  to  the  pestilence,  and  to  the  famine ;  and 
I  will  make  you  to  be  removed  into  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth." 


BIBLE  TESTIMONY.  27  T 

•^  ITc  that  st?aleth  a  man.  and  scllcth  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in 

his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death." 

'•  Whoso  stoppeth  his  ears  at  the  cry  of  the  poor,  he  also  shall 
cry,  but  shall  not  be  heard."' 

"lie  that  oppresseth  the  poor  rcfroacheth  his  Maker." 

"I  will  be  a  swift  witness  against  the  sorcerers,  and  against 
the  adulterers,  and  against  false  swearers,  and  against  those  that 
oppress  the  hireling  in  his  wages,  the  widow,  and  the  fatherless, 
and  that  turn  aside  the  stranger  from  his  right,  and  fear  not  me, 
saith  the  Lord  of  lloots." 

"  As  the  partridge  setteth  on  eggs,  and  hatcheth  them  not ;  so 
he  that  gettcth  riches,  and  not  by  right,  shall  leave  them  in  the 
midst  of  his  days,  and  at  his  end  shall  be  a  fool." 

And  now  wc  will  listen  to  a  few  selected 

PRECEPTS    AND    SAYINGS    OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

'•Call  no  man  master,  neither  be  ye  called  masters." 

"  All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you 
do  ye  even  so  to  them." 

"  Be  kindly  affectionate  one  to  another  with  brotherly  love  j 
in  honor  preferring  one  another." 

"  Do  good  to  all  men,  as  ye  have  opportunity." 

•  St7Jid  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath 
made  you  free,  and  be  not  entangled  again  with  the  yoke  of 
bondage." 

"If  thou  mayest  be  made  free,  use  it  rather." 

"  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire." 

"  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty." 

Some  years  ago  a  clerical  lickspittle  of  the  slave  power 


BTB  BIBIE  TESTIMONY. 

had  the  temerity  to  pv.blish  a  book  or  pamphlet  entitled 
"  Bible  Defence  of  Slavery,"  which  the  Baltimore  Sun,  in 
the  course  of  a  caustic  criticism,  handled  in  the  following 
manner  : — 

"Bible  defence  of  slavery !  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  Bible 
defence  of  slavery  at  the  present  day.  Slavery  in  the  United 
States  is  a  social  institution,  originating  in  the  convenience  and 
cupidity  of  our  ancestors,  existing  by  State  laws,  and  recognized 
to  a  certain  extent — for  the  recovery  of  slave  property — by  the 
Constitution.  And  nobody  would  pretend  that,  if  it  were  inex- 
pedient and  unprofitable  for  any  man  or  any  State  to  continue  to 
hold  slaves,  they  would  be  bound  to  do  so  on  the  ground  of  a 
"  Bible  defence"  of  it.  Slavery  is  recorded  in  the  Bible,  and  ap- 
proved, with  many  degrading  characteristics.  War  is  recorded 
in  the  Bible,  and  approved,  under  what  seems  to  us  the  extreme 
of  cruelty.  But  are  slavery  and  war  to  endure  for  ever  because 
we  find  them  in  the  Bible?  or  are  they  to  cease  at  once  and  for 
ever  because  the  Bible  inculcates  peace  and  brotherhood?" 

Thus,  in  the  last  five  chapters  inclusive,  have  we  intro- 
duced a  mass  of  anti-slavery  arguments,  human  and  di- 
vine, that  will  stand,  irrefutable  and  convincing,  as  long 
as  the  earth  itself  shall  continue  to  revolve  in  its  orbit. 
Aside  from  unafiected  truthfulness  and  candor,  no  merit 
is  claimed  for  anything  we  have  said  on  our  own  account. 
With  the  best  of  motives,  and  in  the  language  of  nature 
more  than  that  of  art,  we  have  simply  given  utterance  to 
the  honest  convictions  of  our  heart — being  impelled  to  it 
by  a  long-harbored  and  unmistakable  sense  of  duty  which 
grew  stronger  and  deeper  as  the  days  passed  away. 

If  half  the  time  which  has  been  spent  in  collecting  and 
arranging  those  testimonies  had  been  occupied  in  the 
composUi  m  of  original  matter,  the  weight  of  paper  and 


BIBLE   TESTIMONY.  219 

binding  and  the  number  of  pag-es  would  have  been  much 
greater,  but  the  value  and  the  effect  of  the  contents  would 
have  been  far  less.  From  the  first,  our  leading  motive 
has  been  to  convince  our  fellow-citizens  of  the  South,  non- 
Blaveholders  and  slaveholders,  that  slavery,  whether  con- 
sidered in  all  its  bearings,  or,  setting  aside  the  moral  as- 
pect of  the  question,  and  looking  at  it  in  only  a  pecuniary 
point  of  view,  is  impolitic,  unprofitable,  and  degrading  ; 
how  well,  thus  far,  we  have  succeeded  in  our  undertaking, 
time  will,  perhaps,  fully  disclose. 

In  tlK)  words  of  a  contemporaneous  German  writer, 
whose  language  we  readily  and  heartily  endorse,  "  It  is 
the  shame  of  our  age  that  argument  is  needed  against 
slavery."  Taking  things  as  they  are,  however,  argument 
being  needed,  we  have  offered  it ;  and  we  have  offered 
it  from  such  sources  as  will,  in  our  honest  opinion,  con- 
found the  devil  and  his  incarnate  confederates. 

These  testimonies,  culled  from  the  accumulated  wisdoai 
of  nearly  six  thousand  centuries,  beginning  with  the  great 
and  good  men  of  our  own  time,  and  running  back  through 
distant  ages  to  Saint  Paul,  Saint  John,  and  Saint  Luke, 
to  Cicero,  Plato,  and  Socrates,  to  Salomon,  David,  and 
Moses,  and  even  to  the  Deity  himself,  are  the  pillars  of 
strength  and  beauty  upon  which  the  popularity  of  our 
work  will,  in  all  probability,  be  principally  based.  If  the 
ablest  writers  of  the  Old  Testament  ;  if  the  eloquent  pro- 
phets of  old  ;  if  tlie  renowned  philosophers  of  Greece  and 
Rome  ;  if  the  heavenly-minded  authors  and  compilers  of 
the  New  Testament  ;  if  the  illustrious  poets  and  prose- 
writers,  hci  ^s,  statesmen,  sages  of  all  nations,  ancient 


280  BIBLE   TESTIMONY. 

and  modern  ;  if  God  himself  and  the  hosts  of  learned 
ministers  whom  he  has  commissioned  to  proclaim  his 
word — if  all  these  are  wrong,  then  we  art  wrong  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  however,  if  they  are  right,  we  are  right ;  for, 
in  effect,  we  only  repeat  and  endeavor  to  enforce  their 
precepts. 

K  we  are  in  error,  we  desire  to  be  corrected  ;  and,  if  it 
is  not  asking  too  much,  we  respectfully  request  the  advo- 
cates of  slavery  to  favor  us  with  an  expose  of  what  they, 
in  their  one-sided  view  of  things,  conceive  to  be  the  ad- 
vantages of  their  favorite  and  peculiar  institution.  Such 
an  expose,  if  skillfully  executed,  would  doubtless  be  re- 
garded as  the  funniest  novel  of  the  times — a  fit  produc- 
tion, if  not  too  immoral  in  its  tendencies,  to  be  incorpo- 
rated into  the  next  edition  of  ©'Israeli's  curiosities  of 
literature. 


< 


FREE    FICrRES    AN'D    SL.\VE.  981 


CHAPTER    YIII. 

FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 

IT!n)ER  this  heading  we  propose  to  introduce  the  remain- 
der of  the  more  important  statistics  of  the  Free  and  of  the 
Slave  States  ; — especially  those  that  relate  to  Commerce, 
Manufactures,  Internal  Improvements,  Education  and  Re- 
ligion. Originally  it  vras  our  intention  to  devote  a 
separate  chapter  to  each  of  the  industrial  and  moral  in- 
terests above-named  :  but  other  considerations  have  so 
greatly  encroached  on  our  space,  that  we  are  compelled  to 
modify  our  design.  To  the  thoughtful  and  discriminating 
reader,  however,  the  chief  statistics  which  follow  will  be 
none  the  less  interesting  for  not  being  the  subjects  of  an- 
notations. 

At  present,  all  we  ask  of  pro-slavery  men,  no  matter  in 
what  part  of  the  world  they  may  reside,  is  to  look  these 
figures  fahrly  in  the  face.  We  wish  them  to  do  it,  in  the 
first  instance,  not  on  the  platforms  of  public  debate,  where 
the  exercise  of  eloquence  is  too  often  characterized  by 
violent  passion  and  subterfuge,  but  in  their  own  private 
apartments,  where  no  eye  save  that  of  the  All-seeing  One 
will  rest  upon  them,  and  where,  in  considering  the  rela- 
tions which  they  sustain  to  the  past,  the  present,  and  the 


282  FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 

future,  an  opportunity  will  be  afforded  them  of  securing 
that  most  valuable  of  all  possessions  attainable  on  earth, 
a  conscience  void  of  offence  toward  God  and  man. 

Each  separate  table  or  particular  compilation  of  statia- 
tics  will  afford  food  for  at  least  an  hours  profitable  reflec- 
tion ;  indeed,  the  more  these  figures  are  studied,  and  the 
better  they  are  understood,  the  sooner  will  the  author's 
object  be  accomplished, — the  sooner  will  the  genius  of 
Univeraal  Liberty  dispel  the  dark  clouds  of  slavery. 


PREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 


283 


TABT.K    NO.    XXVI 

TONSAOE,    EXPORTS    AND    IMPORTS    OF   THE    FRES:    STATES 1355. 


Stale*. 

Tonnnge. 

Exports. 

I  ni  porta. 

California 

92,023 
137,170 

53,797 
3,098 

800,587 
970,727 

69,490 

30,330 

121,020 

1,404,221 

91,007 
397,708 

61,038 
0,915 

15,024 

S8,22 1,066 
878,874 
647,053 

4,851,207 

28  190,925 

608.091 

1,523 

087 

113,731,238 

847,143 

6,274,338 

330,023 

2,895 ,46S 

174,057 

S107,520,0<.«3 

$5,951,379 

(^oiiiu'Ot ir tiL        ...  .... 

630,820 

Illinois       

64,509 

Iruliana    

•Maine    

2,927,443 

Massaclmsetts 

Miclii-an 

Now  Hampshire 

New  Jersey 

45,113.774 

281,379 

17,786 

1,473 

New  York 

164,776,511 

Ohio 

600,050 

Pennsylvania 

RluHle'  Islaud 

15,300,935 
630,387 
691,593 

Wisconsin               .... 

48,159 

4.252.615 

§236,847.810 

TABLK    NO.    XXVII. 

TONNAGE,    EXPORTS     AND     IMPORTS    OF   THE    SLAVE    STATES 1855. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

leorjjia 

Ke:itucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

.Mi>sissi;»|)i . ,  , . 

Missouri.. 

North  Carolina. 
8'»uih  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Te.xas 

Vir^jinia. 


Tonnage. 

36,274 

19,186 

14,835 

29.505 

22,080 

201,149 

234,805 

2,475 

00  592 

60,077 

00,935 

8,104 

8,812 

92,788 


Exports. 


S14,270,585 

08,087 
1,403,594 
7,513,519 

55,367,962 
10,395,984 


433,818 
12,700,250 

910,961 
4,379,928 


855,51'  ;   S107,480,CS8 


Imports. 


S619,961 

6,821 

45,998 

273,716 

12,900,821 

7,788,(M9 
1,061 

243.083 
1,688,542 

262  50S 
855,41)5 

S24,58G,528 


284 


FREE    FIGURES    vND    SLAT*. 


TABLE    NO.    XXVIII. 

PRODUCT   OF   MANUFACTURES    IN   THE    FREE    STATES — 1850. 


S^tes. 

Val.  of  Annual 
froductfe 

Capital 
invested. 

Ilanda 
employed. 

California 

S12,862,522 
45,110,102 
17,236,073 
18,922,651 
3,551,783 
24,664,135 

151,137,145 
10.976,894 
23,164,503 
39,713,586 

237,597,249 
62,647,259 

155,044,910 

22,093,258 

8,570,920 

9,293,068 

S842,586,058 

SI, 006,197 

23,890,348 

6,385,387 

7,941,602 

1,292,875 

14,700,452 

83,357,642 

6,534,250 

18,242,114 

22,184,730 

99,904,405 

29,019,538 

94,473,810 

12,923,176 

5,001,377 

3,382,148 

S430,240,051 

3,964 
47  770 

Connecticut ^ ,. 

Illinois 

12,065 

14,342 

1,707 

28,078 

165,938 

9,290 

27,092 

37,311 

199,349 
51,489 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

Michio^an    ...        .... 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

146,766 

20,881 

8,445 

6,089 

780,576 

TABLE    NO.   XXIX. 

PRODUCT   OF   MANUFACTURES   IN   THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


Stateu. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi. . .  . 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennesse 

Texas. , 

Virginia. . .    . 


VaL  of  Annual 

Capital 

Hands 

products. 

invested. 

employed. 

S4.538,878 

S3,450,606 

4,936 

607,436 

324,005 

903 

4,049,296 

2,978,945 

3,888 

668,338 

547,060 

991 

7,086,525 

5,460,483 

8,378 

24,588,483 

12,350,734 

24,385 

7,320,948 

5,318,074 

6,437 

32.477,702 

14,753,143 

30,124 

2,972,038 

1,833,420 

3,173 

23,749,265 

9,079,695 

16,%a 

9,111,245 

7,252,225 

12,444 

7,063,513 

6.056,865 

7,009 

9,728,438 

6,975,279 

12,032 

1,165,538 

539,290 

1.066 

29,705,387 

18,109,993 

29,10? 

$165,413,027 

S95,029,879 

161,733 

FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


285 


TABI.K    NO. 

MILES    OF    CANALS    AND    RAILROADS    IN    THE    FREE    STATES— 

1854-1857. 


Statefl. 

CannU,  milcg, 
1854. 

Railroads, 
lulloa,  1857. 

Cost  of  Rail- 
roads, 1855. 

California 

61 
100 
367 

60 
100 

11 
147 

989 
921 
936 

22 

600 

2,524 

1,806 

253 

442 

1,285 

600 

645 

472 

2,700 

2,869 

2,407 

85 

615 

629 

$25,224,101 
65,663,656 
20,585,923 
2,300,000 
13,749,021 
69,167,781 
22,370,397 
15,860,949 
13  840.030 

111,882.503 

67,798,202 

94,657,675 

2,614,484 

17,998.835 

6,600,000 

Illinois                 

Indiana 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

New  Hampshire. 

Ne^v  Jor->ey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin    

3,682 

17,855 

S538,313,647 

TABLE    NO.   XXXI. 

MILES    OF    CANALS    AND    RAILROADS    IN    TUE    SLAVE    STATES 

1854-1857. 


Slates. 

Canals,  miles, 
1854. 

Railroads, 
miles,  1857. 

Cost  of  Rail- 
roads, 1855. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

51 
14 

28 
486 
101 
184 

13 
50 

181 

484 

120 
86 

1,062 
306 
263 
597 
410 
189 
612 
706 
608 
57 

1,479 

S3,986,208 

Delaware 

Florida 

600,000 

250,000 

17,034,802 

6,179,072 

Georsia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

1,731,000 

12,651,333 

4,520,000 

1,000  000 

6,847,213 

13,547,093 

10,436.610 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

16,406,250 

Virginia 

1,111 

6ig5D 

S96, 252,581 

286 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


TABLE  NO.  XXXIl. 

BANE  CAPITAL  IN  THE  FREE  AND  IN  THE  SLAYE  6TATES 

1855. 


Free  Statos. 

Slave  StaUs. 

California 

Alabama 

S2,296,400 

Connecticut 

S15,597.891 

Arkansas 

Illinois 

2,513,790 

Delaware 

1,393,175 

Indiana     

7,281,934 

Florida 

Iowa         ....  .... 

Georgia 

13,413,100 

Maine 

7,301,252 

Kentucky 

10,369,717 

Massachusetts. . . 

54,492,660 

Louisiana 

20,179,107 

Michigan 

980,416 

Maryland 

10,411,874 

New  Hampshire.. 

3.626,000 

Mississippi 

240,105 

New  Jersey 

5,314,885 

Missouri.. 

1,215,398 

New  York 

83,773,288 

North  Carolina... 

6,205,073 

Ohio 

7,166,581 
19,864,825 

South  Carolina... 
Tennessee 

16  603,253 

Pennsylvania..., 

6,717,848 

Rhode  Island 

17,511,162 

Texas 

Vermont 

3.275,656 

Virginia 

14,033,838 

Wisconsin 

1,400,000 

Total 

Total 

S230,]00,340 

S102,078,94G 

TABLK    NO.   XXXITI. 

MILITIA    FORCE    OF    THE    FREE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1852. 


Free  States. 


Slave  States, 


California 

Connecticut 

Illinois        

51,640  1 

170,359   ' 

53,918   ! 

62.588 

119,690  1 

63,958 

32,151 

39,171 

265,293 

176,455 

276,070 

14,443 

23.915 

32  203 

i 

1,38184a  * 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

76,662 
17,137 

9  0<>r, 

Indiana ,  . 

12  122 

Iowa 

Georgia     

57  312 

Maine. .- 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. .. 
South  Carolina.. . 

Tennessee 

Texas., 

Virginia 

Total... 

81  840 

Massachusetts... . 

Michigan 

New  Hampshire.. 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

43,823 
46,86 1 
36,084 
61,000 
79,448 
65,209 
71,252 
19.766 
125,128 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

Totail 

792,876 

rRF.F,    riGURFS    AN'D    SL.WR. 


28T 


TABI.r:    NO.    XXXIV. 

POST    OFFICE    OPERATIONS    IN    THE    FREE    STATES 1^55. 


8ute«. 


California 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts .. 

Micliiijan 

New-Hampshire. 

New-.Tf  r.-^ey 

New- York 

Ohio , 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island ,. . 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 


Stamps       (  Total  Port tHge     Cu«tofTnui» 
sold.  collected.  the  niHils. 


SSI. 4  37 

S23 1.591 

SI  35,386 

79.284 

179,230 

81,462 

105.252 

279,887 

280.038 

60,578 

180,405 

190,480 

28.198 

82,420 

84,428 

60,165 

151,358 

82,218 

259.062 

532.184 

153,091 

49,763 

142.188 

148,204 

38,387 

95,609 

46,631 

31,495 

109,697 

80,084 

542,498 

1,383,157 

481,410 

107,958 

452,613 

421,870 

217,293 

683.013 

251,833 

30.291 

68,624 

13,891 

36,314 

92.816 

64,437 

33,638 

112,903 

92,842 

31,719,513  I    S4,670.725      S2,608,295 


TABI.K    NO.    XXXV. 

POST    OFFICE    OPERATIONS    IX    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1855. 


States. 

Stamps 

60ld. 

Total  P.)^>t:ll,'e 

collected. 

CostofTrarwL 
themaiia. 

Alahama 

Arkansas 

S44,514 

8.941 

7,298 

8,764 

73.880 

65,694 

60,778 

77.743 

31,182 

63,742 

34,235 

47.368 

48.377 

24.5:^.0 

96,799 

§104,514 

30,664 

19.644 

19,275 

149,063 

130.067 

133.753 

191.485 

78,739 

139.652 

72.759 

9L6:>0 

Ift3.6s6 

7().4:Ui 

217,861 

226.816 
117,659 

l)olaware   ..        

9  243 

Floriila 

77.553 

Ot'or^ia     .          

216  003 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

144,101 
133  810 

Marvland                      

192  743 

170,785 

Missouri 

185,096 
148  2  49 

Nt»rth  Carolina 

South  Caflina 

192.216 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virjjii  ia 

116.091 
209,936 
245,592 

S<i66,845 

$1,653,198 

S2,385,953 

288 


FREE   FIGURES   AND   SLAVK. 


TABLE    NO.   XXXVI. 

PUBLIC    SCHOOLS    OF    THE    FREE    STATES 1850. 

States.  ~      ' 


California 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts.  . 

Michigan 

New  Hampshire. 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania... 
Rhode  Island  . . . 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 


Number. 

Teachers. 

Pnpils. 

2 

2 

4fl 

1,656 

1,787 

71,269 

4,052 

4,248 

125,725 

4,822 

4.860 

161,500 

740 

828 

29,556 

4,042 

5,540 

192,815 

3,679 

4,443 

176,475 

2,714 

3,231 

110,455 

.  2,381 

3,013 

75.643 

1,473 

1,574 

77,930 

11,580 

13,965 

675,221 

11,661 

12,886 

484,153 

9,061 

10,024 

413,706 

416 

518 

23,130 

2,731 

4,173 

93,457 

1,423 

1,529 

68,817 

62,433 


72,621 


2,769,901 


TABLE    NO.    XXXVII. 

PUBLIC    SCHOOLS    IN    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky  . . . .  , 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina, 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 


Number. 

Teachers. 

Pupils. 

1,152 

1,195 

28,380 

353 

355 

8,493 

194 

214 

8,970 

69 

73 

1,878 

1.251 

1.265 

32,705 

2,234 

2,306 

71,429 

664 

822 

25,046 

898 

986 

33,111 

782 

826 

18  746 

1,570 

1,620 

61,754 

2,657 

2,730 

104.095 

724 

739 

17,838 

2,6s0 

2,819 

104,117 

349 

360 

7,946 

2,930 

2,997 

67,353 

18,607 


19,307 


681»801 


FREE    Fir.rUES    AN'D    SLAVE. 


289 


TABI.i:    NO.    XXXVIII. 

LIBRARIES    OTHER    THAN    PRIVATE  IN  THE    FREE  STATES lft50. 


Stat.'s.' 

NuniVor. 

VolumeB, 

California 

104 

152 

151 

32 

236 

1,462 

417 

129 

128 

11,013 

352 

393 

96 

96 

72 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

165,318 
62,486 

68,403 

Iowa ,. 

6,790 

Maine 

121,969 

Massachusetts 

684,015 

lyiichi'^an 

107,943 

New  Hampshire. 

f5,759 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

80,885 
1,700,820 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

186,826 
363,400 

Rhode  Island 

104,342 

Vermont 

64,641 

Wisconsin 

21,020 

14,911 

3,888,234 

TABLE   NO.   XXXIX. 

LIBRARIES  OTHER  THAN  PRIVATE  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES 1850. 


States, 

Number. 

Volumes. 

Alabama 

56 

3 

17 

7 

88 

80 

10 

124 

117 

97 

38 

26 

34 

12 

54 

20,623 
420 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

17,950 

Florida .- 

2,660 

Geor'na .... 

31,788 

Kent  ucky 

79.400 

Louisiana 

26,800 

Maryland 

^lississippi 

125,042 
21,737 

Missouri 

75,056 

North  Carol 

na 

29  592 

South  Carol 

ina. . .        ...            . 

107,472 

Tennes.'iee.  . 
Te.\as 

22.896 
4.230 

Virginia  . . . 

88,402 

695 

649,577 

13 


290 


FREE    FIGURES    ArD    SLAVE 


TABLB    NO.    XL. 

NEWSPAPERS    AND    PERIODICALS    PUBLISHED    IN    IRE 
FREE    STATES 1850. 


States. 

Numbv-T. 

Copies  Printed 
annually. 

7 

46 

107 

107 

29 

49 

202 

68 

38 

61 

428 

261 

309 

19 

85 

46 

761,200 
4  "^Ql  932 

Connecticut 

Illinois    

5,102,276 
4.316.828 
1,512,800 
4,203,064 
64.820,564 
3,247,736 
3,067,552 
4,098,678 
115,385  473 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Massachusetts 

^Iichi°'"an 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pe.itisylvania 

30,473,407 
84,898  672 

Rhode  Island 

2,756,950 
2,567,662 
2,665,487 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

1  790 

334.146,281 

TABLE   NO.   XLT. 


NEWSPAPERS 

AND    PERIODICALS    PUBLISHED    IN    THE 
SLAVE    STATES 1850. 

States. 

Number. 

Copies  Printed 
annually. 

Alabama 

A'^'kansas 

CO 
9 
ID 
10 
51 
62 
65 
68 
60 
61 
51 
46 
50 
34 
87 

704 

2,662,741 
377,000 

Dc  laware 

421.200 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

319:800 

4.070,868 

6.582,838 

12,416,224 

Miryland 

Mississippi 

19.612,724 
1,752  504 

M  ssouri 

6  195  560 

N'>Tth  Carolina 

2.020.564 

Sl  nth  Carolina 

7,145.930 

Tennessee 

6  940  750 

Texas 

1,296,924 
0,223,068 

81,038,693 

Virginia 

FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 


291 


TABI.K    NO.    Xr.II. 


1LLITEAA'_*E    WHITE    ADULTS    IN    THE 

FREE    ST.\TES 

—1850. 

Stnto^ 

Native. 

Forcljrn. 

2.917 
4,013 
6,947 
3,205 
1,077 
4,148 

20,484 
3,009 
2,004 
5,878 

68,052 
9,062 

24,989 
2,359 
5,624 
4,902 

173,790 

Total. 

Califi.rnia 

Connecticut 

2,201 

826 

34,107 

67,275 

7,043 

1,9')9 

1,055 

4,903 

893 

8,370 

23,241 

51,908 

41,944 

981 

665 

1,459 

2^8.725 

5,118 
4,739 

Illinois 

40,054 

70,540 

8,120 

6,147 

27  539 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Alainc  

Mas'>achuselts    

Michigan 

7.912 

New  Hampshire    

2  957 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

14,248 
91,293 
61,030 
66,928 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

3,340 
6,189 
6,361 

422,515 

TAlil.K    NO.    XLIII. 


ILLITERATE    WHITE    ADULTS    IN    THE 

SLAVE    STATES 1850. 

States. 

Native. 

Foreign. 

139 

27 

404 

295 

400 

2,347 

6,271 

3,451 

81 

1,801 

340 

104 

606 

2,4.^8 

1,137 

Total. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware     

33,618 

16,792 

4,132 

3,564 

40,794 

64,340 

14,950 

17,364 

13,324 

34,420 

73,226 

15,580 

77,017 

8  037 

75,s08 

..  .     

33,757 

16,819 

4  530 

Florida 

OeurTia    

31859 
41  200 

Kentuckv 

60,087 
21, '^'U 

Louisiana    

Maryland.. 

Mississippi 

20,815 
13,405 

Missouri 

36,281 
73,566 
15,684 
77,622 
10,525 
77,005 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Termessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

493,026 


19,856 


612,88: 


292 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


TABLE    NO.    XI.IV. 

NATIONAL    POLITICAL    POWER    OF   THE    FREE    STATE3- 


•1857. 


States. 

Senators. 

Rep.  in  lower 
House  Cong. 

2 
4 
9 
11 
2 

6 
11 

4 

3 

5 
33 
21 
25 

2 

3 

3 

Electoral 
votea. 

California 

2 

I 

2 
2 
2 
2 

2 
2 

2 
2 
2 

2 
2 

2 

2 

4 

Connecticut 

Illinois    .        

6 
11 

Indiana   

13 

Iowa 

4 

Maine 

8 

Massachusetts 

Michifran 

13 
6 

New  Hampshire. 

5 

Kew  Jersev 

New  York" 

7 
35 

Ohio 

Pennsj'lvania 

23 

27 

Rhode  Island 

4 

Vermont 

5 

Wisconsin 

5 

32 

144 

17G 

TABI.H    NO.    XLV. 

NATIONAL    POLITICAL   POWER    OF   THE    SLAVE    STATES 185T. 


States. 

Senators. 

Rep.  in  lower 
House  Cong. 

Electoral 
votes. 

2 
2 
2 

2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 

9 

I 

2 

7 
2 

1 

1 
8 

\ 

8 
6 

10 
2 

13 

9 

Arkansas 

4 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentuck.v 

Louisiana 

3 
3 

10 

12 

6 

Maryland 

8 

7 

jNIissouri 

9 

North  Carolina 

10 

South  Carolina 

.    8 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virgil  ia. . . .      

12 

4 

15 

30 

90 

120 

FRF.F    FICTRES    AN'P    SLAVE. 


29-: 


TAHLK    NO.    XLVr. 

fOPULAU    VOTE    FOR    PRESIDENT    RY    THE    FREE  STATCi J  850. 


Statw. 

Reptiblican. 
Fremont. 

A  mn-ican. 
Fillmore. 

35,113 

2,615 

37,444 

22,3S6 

0,180 

3,325 

10,626 

1,660 

422 

24,115 

124,00 1 

28,126 

82,175 

1,075 

545 

579 

Dnnocrafie. 
Bui.b:inan. 

51,025 

34,005 

■  105,348 

118.670 

30,170 

30,080 

30,240 

52,136 

32,780 

46,043 

105.878 

170,874 

230,710 

6.580 

10,560 

52,843 

Total 

California 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

20.330 

42,715 

96,189 

94,375 

43,954 

67,379 

108,100 

71,762 

38,345 

28,338 

276,907 

187.407 

147,510 

11,467 

30,561 

66,000 

107,377 

80,325 

238,081 

2:)5  431 

Iowa 

80,304 

100,784 

107,056 

125,558 

71,556 

99.396 

5971389 

386,407 

460,305 

19,722 

50,675 

119,512 

Maine 

Ma.ssachusetts. . . 

Michigan 

New  Hampshire.. 

New  Jersev 

New  York. 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania..  . , 

Rhode' Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

1,340.618 

303,500 

1,224,750 

2,958,958 

TABLE    NO.   XLVII. 

POPULAR   VOTE    FOR    PRESIDENT    BY   THE    SLAVE    STATES 1856. 


States. 


Republican.   .     American. 
Freinout.      |      Fillmora 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina   .. 
South  Carolina*.. 

Tennessee 

Te.\as 

Virginia 


•  No  popular  vote. 


308 

314 

281 


291 


1,194 


28.552 
10.787 
6,175 
4,833 
42.228 
67,416 
20,700 
47,400 
24,195 
48,524 
36,886 

60,178 
15,214 
60,278 


Democratic. 
Buchaiiaa 

40,739 
21,010 
8,004 
6,358 
50,578 
74,012 
22,104 
30,115 
35,446 
58,164 
48,246 

73,638 
28,757 
80.826 


Total 


75,201 
32,607 
14,487 
11,191 
98,806 

142,372 
42,873 
86,856 
59.641 

106,688 
85,132 

130,816 

44,001 

150.305 


470,405  I   600,587  .  1,090,!>^ 


294 


FREE    FIG  THE  ^^    .VXD    SLAVE. 


TABI^K    NO.    XLVIII. 

TALUE  OF  CnURCIIES  IN  THE  FREE  AND  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES 

IboO. 


Free  S 

tales.                     1 

Slave  States. 

California 

S288,400 
3,599,330 
1,532,305 
1,568,906 
235,412 
1,794,209 

10.504,888 

'793,180 

1,433,266 

3,712,863 

21,539,561 
5.860,059 

11,853,291 

1,293,600 

1,251.655 

512,552 

Alabama 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

Arkan.sas 

Delaware     

Sl,244,741 

149,686 

340,345 

192,600 

1,327,112 

2  295,353 

1,940,495 

3,974,116 

832,622 

1,730,135 

907,785 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Florida 

Georgia 

Maine. 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michi^ran 

New  Hampshire... 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Mississippi 

Missouri.. 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont. 

2.181,476 

1,246,951 

408,944 

Wisconsin 

Total 

2,902,220 

Total 

$•67,773,477 

$21,674,581 

TABLK    NO.    XLIX 

PATENTS    ISSUED    ON    NEW    INVENTIONS    IN    THE    FREE    AND    IN 
THE    SLAVE    STATES 1856. 


Free  States. 

Slave  States. 

California    

13 

142 

93 

?I 

42 

331 

22 

43 

78 

592 

139 

267 

18 

35 

33 

Alabama 

11 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

8 

Indiana    

3 

13 

Maine 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

20 

jNIas'-achusetts 

30 

Michigan       

Maryland 

49 

New  Hampshire.. . 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 

'South  Carolina 

!  Tennessee 

Texas  

8 
32 

9 
10 

reinisylvania 

Rhode"  Island 

23 
4 

Vermont 

Virginia 

42 

Wisctf  isin 

Total 

Total 

1,929 

268 

FRFF.  FKJURHS  AND  SLAVE. 


295 


TABI.C    NO.    L. 

BIBLB    CAUSE    AND    TUACT    CAUSE    IN    TUE    FREE    STATES 1855. 


States. 


Contnbu.  for 
the  Bible  Causa 


Coniribii.  for 
the  Tract  C.iuse. 


California 

C'>»nieciicat 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Maine 

Massachusetts . . 

Micliiijan 

New-IIanipshire. 

New-Jersey 

New- York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island  . . . 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 


si.ooo 

s^        5 

24,528 

15,872 

28,103 

3,786 

6,755 

1,491 

4,216 

2,005 

5,449 

2,981     . 

43,444 

11,492 

5,554 

1,114 

6,271 

1,288 

15,475 

3,516 

123,386 

61,233 

25,758 

9,576 

25,360 

12,121 

2,609 

2,121 

5,709 

2,867 

4,700 

474 

S310.667 


S131,972 


TABLK    NO.    LI. 

BIBLE    CAUSE    AND    TRACT  CAUSE  IN  THE    SLATE    STATES 1855. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georcia 

Kentucky  .,   . 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 


Contribu.  for  Contribu.  for 

the  Bible  Cause,      the  Tiact  Cause. 


£68,125 


S3,351 

4.77 

2,950 

110 

1,037 

163 

1.957 

5 

4,532 

1,468 

5,956 

1,366 

1.810 

1,099 

8,909 

6,365 

1,067 

207 

4,711 

936 

6,197 

1,419 

3,984 

3  222 

8,383 

1,807 

3,985 

127 

9,296 

6,894 

S24,725 


296 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


TABLE    NO.    l.II. 

MISSIONARY    CAUSE    AND    COLONIZATION*    CAUSE    IN    THE 
FREE    STATES 1855-1856. 


Stages. 

Contributions  for 
Miss'y  purposes,  1855. 

Contributions  for 
Coloniza.    pur.,    1856 

California 

Connecticut    

S         192 
48,044 
10,040 

4,705 

1,750 

13,929 

128,505 

4,935 
11,963 
19,946 
172,115 
19,890 
43,412 

9,440 
11,094 

2,216 

S       1 
9  233 

Illinois     

643 

Indiana    

34 

Iowa 

3 

Maine 

1  719 

Massachusetts    ....        ... 

1  422 

Michioran 

New  Hampshire     

1,130 
3,261 
24,371 
2,687 
4,287 
2,125 
304 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

806 

S502,174 

S51,930 

TABLK    NO.    LIII. 

MISSIONARY    CAUSE    AND    COLONIZATION*    CAUSE    IN    THE 
SLAVE    STATES 1855-1856. 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

^lissouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina, 

Tennesso) 

Texas. .. 

yi  r-ini?   . 


Contributions  for 

Contributions  for 

Miss'y  purposes,  1855. 

Coloniza.    pur.,    1866 

So,963 

Sl,113 

455 

1 

1,003 

250 

340 

13 

9,846 

5,323 

6,953 

4,436 

334 

871 

20,677 

406 

4,957 

2,177 

2,712 

313 

6,010 

969 

25.248 

129 

4,971 

1,611 

349 

6 

22,106 

10,000 

S101,934  I 

For  colonizing  free  blacks  in  Liberia. 


S27,018 


FREE    TK^URKS    AN'P    PI.AVE. 


207 


TAI3L1-:    NO.    I. IV. 

PEATIIS    IN    THE    FREE    STATES — 18^  C 


Sutes. 

Number  of 
deaths. 

5.781 

11,019 

12,728 

2,014 

7,515 

19,4  U 

4,520 

4,208 

0,407 

44,889 

28.949 

28,818 

2,241 

3,182 

2,884 

Ratio  to  the  Xuinbei 
living. 

California    . . 

Coiiucclicut 

04  18 

78.28 

Indiana 

77.G5 

Iowa 

94.03 

Maine 

77  29 

Massacliusctls 

Michi»'an 

61.23 
88.19 

New  Haiupshire 

74  49 

New  Jersey 

75  70 

New  York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

69  85 
G8.41 
81  63 

Rhode  Island 

A  eruiont  

65.83 
100  13 

105  82 

184.249 

72.01 

TABI.K    NO.    I.V. 

DEATHS    IN    THE    SLAVE    STATES 1850." 


States. 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georsiia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virjiin  r 


Number  of 

Ratio  to  the  Number 

deaths. 

living. 

9,084 

84.94 

2,9.s7 

70.18 

1,209 

75.71 

983 

93.67 

9.920 

91.93 

15.200 

64.60 

11.948 

42.85 

9.594 

60.77 

8,711 

69.93 

12,211 

55.81 

10.207 

85.12 

7,997 

83.59 

11.759 

85  34 

3,046 

69.79 

19,058 

74.01 

133,805  i  71.82 

♦  For  an  explanation  of  this  Table  tea  the  next  six  p«iges. 


FREE    FIGURES    ANT)    SLAVE. 


TABLE    NO.    JLVI. 

FREE  WHITE  MALE    PERSONS  OVER  FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE 


ENGAGED    IS    AGRICULTURAL    AND    OTHER     OUT-DOOt 
SLAVE-STATKS 1850. 


LABOR    IN    THE 


States. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Pelaware 

Florida 

Geororia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana , 

Maryland , 

Mississippi , 

Missouri 

North  Carolina.. 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas  

Virginia 


No.   engaged 

No.    en^aeed 

in 

in  other  out- 

Total 

Agriculture. 

door  labor. 

67,742 

7,229 

74,971 

28,436 

5,596 

34,032 

6,225 

4,184 

10,409 

5,472 

2,598 

8,070 

82,107 

11.054 

93,161 

110,119 

26,308 

136,427 

11,524 

13,827 

25,351 

24,672 

17,146 

41,818 

50,028 

5,823 

55.851 

64,292 

19,900 

84,192 

76,338 

21,876 

98,214 

87,612 

6,991 

44,603 

115,844 

16,795 

132,t  39 

24,987 

22.713 

47,700 

97,654 

33,928 

131,582 

803,052 

215,968 

1,019,020 

Too  hot  in  the  South,  and  too  unhealthy  there — white 
men  "can't  stand  it" — negroes  only  can  endure  the  heat 
of  Southern  climes  I  How  often  are  our  ears  insulted 
with  such  wickedly  false  assertions  as  these  I  In  what 
degree  of  latitude — ^pray  tell  us — in  what  degree  of  lati- 
tude do  the  rays  of  the  sun  become  too  calorific  for  white 
men  ?  Certainly  in  no  part  of  the  United  States,  for  in 
the  extreme  South  we  find  a  very  large  number  of  non- 
slaveholding  whites  over  the  age  of  fifteen,  who  derive 
their  entire  support  from  manual  labor  in  the  open  fields. 
The  sun,  that  bugbear  of  slaveholding  demagogues,  shone 
on  more  than  one  mil  "ion  of  free  white  laborers — mostly 
agriculturists — in  the  slave  States  in  1850,  exclusive  of 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SI^VE.  299 

inosc  engaged  in  commerce,  trade,  manufactures,  the  me- 
chanic arts,  and  mining.  Yet,  notwithstanding  ail  these 
mstanoes  of  exposure  io  his  wrath,  we  have  had  no  intel- 
ligence whatever  of  a  single  case  of  coup  de  so-leil.  Ala- 
bama is  not  too  hot  ;  sixty-seven  thousand  white  sons  of 
toil  till  her  soil.  Mississippi  is  not  too  hot ;  fifty-five  thou- 
sand free  white  laborers  arc  hopeful  devotees  of  her  out- 
door pursuits.  Texas  is  not  too  hot ;  forty-seven  thousand 
free  white  persons,  males,  over  the  age  of  fifteen,  daily 
perform  their  rural  vocations  amidst  her  unsheltered  air. 

It  is  stated  on  good  authority  that,  in  January,  1856, 
native  ice,  three  inches  thick,  was  found  in  Galveston 
Bay  ;  we  have  seen  it  ten  inches  thick  in  North  Carolina, 
with  the  mercury  in  the  thermometer  at  two  degrees  be- 
low zero.  In  January,  1857,  while  the  snow  was  from 
three  to  five  feet  deep  in  many  parts  of  North  Carolina, 
the  thermometer  indicated  a  degree  of  coldness  seldom 
exceeded  in  any  State  in  the  Union — thirteen  degrees  be- 
low zero.  The  truth  is,  instead  of  its  being  too  hot  in  the 
South  for  white  men,  it  is  too  cold  for  negroes  ;  and  we 
long  to  see  the  day  arrive  when  the  latter  shall  have  en- 
tirely receded  from  their  xmcongenial  homes  in  America, 
and  given  full  and  undivided  place  to  the  former. 

Too  hot  in  the  South  for  white  men  1  It  is  not  too  liot 
for  white  women.  Time  and  again,  in  different  counties 
in  North  Carolina,  have  we  seen  the  poor  white  wife  of 
the  poor  white  husband,  following  him  in  the  harvest-fiild 
from  morning  till  night,  binding  up  tlie  grain  as  it  fell 
from  his  cradle.  In  the  immediate  neighborhood  from 
vhich  w©    "«ail,  there   are   not  less  than  thirty  young 


300  FKEE    FIGURES   AND    SLAVE. 

women,  non-slaveholding  whites,  between  the  ages  of  fit- 
teen  aiLd  twenty-five — some  of  whom  are  so  well  knowD 
to  us  that  we  could  call  them  by  name — who  labor  in  the 
fields  every  summer  ;  two  of  them  in  particular,  near 
neighbors  to  our  mother,  are  in  the  habit  of  hiring  them- 
selves out  during  harvest-time,  the  very  hottest  season  of 
the  year,  to  bind  wheat  and  oats — each  of  them  keeping 
up  with  the  reaper  ;  and  this  for  the  paltry  consideration 
of  twenty-five  cents  per  day. 

That  any  respectable  man — any  man  with  a  heart  or  a 
soul  in  his  composition — can  look  upon  these  poor  toiling 
white  women  without  feeling  indignant  at  that  accursed 
system  of  slavery  which  has  entailed  on  them  the  miseries 
of  poverty,  ignorance,  and  degradation,  we  shall  not  do 
ourself  the  violence  to  believe.  If  they  and  their  hus- 
bands, and  their  sons  and  daughters,  and  brothers  and 
sisters,  are  not  righted  in  some  of  the  more  important  par- 
ticulars in  which  they  have  been  wronged,  the  fault  shall 
lie  at  other  doors  than  our  own.  In  their  behalf,  chiefly, 
have  we  written  and  compiled  this  work  ;  and  until  our 
object  shall  have  been  accomplished,  or  until  life  shall 
have  been  extinguished,  there  shall  be  no  abatement  in 
our  efforts  to  aid  them  in  regaining  the  natural  and  inali- 
enable prerogatives  out  of  which  they  have  been  so  infam- 
ously swindled.  "We  want  to  see  no  more  plowing,  or 
hoeing,  or  raking,  or  grain-binding,  by  white  women  in 
the  Southern  States  ;  employment  in  cotton-mills  and  other 
factories  would  be  far  more  profitable  and  congenial  to 
them,  and  this  they  shall  have  within  a  shorlt  period  aftei 
slavery  shall  have  be<»n  abolished. 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 


301 


Too  hot  in  llie  South  for  white  men  I  What  is  the  tes- 
timony of  reliuUe  Southrons  themselves?  Says  Cassius 
M.  Chiy,  of  Kentueky  : — 

'•  In  the  extreme  Soutli,  at  New  Orleans,  the  lahoring  men— 
t]i«  stevedores  and  hackmen  on  the  levee,  where  the  heat  is  in- 
tensified hy  the  proximity  of  the  red  brick  buildings,  are  all 
white  men,  and  they  are  in  tlic  full  enjoyment  of  health.  But 
how  about  Cotton  ?  I  am  informed  by  a  friend  of  mine — him- 
self a  slaveholder,  and  therefore  good  authority — that  in  North- 
western Texas,  among  the  German  settlements,  who  true  to  their 
national  instincts,  will  not  employ  the  labor  of  a  slave — they  pro- 
duce more  cotton  to  the  acre,  and  of  a  better  quality,  and  selling 
at  prices  from  a  cent  to  a  cent  and  a  half  a  pound  higher  than 
that  produced  by  slave  labor." 

Says  Gov.  Ilammond,  of  South  Carolina: — 

^  The  steady  heat  of  our  summers  is  not  so  prostrating  as  the 
short,  but  frequent  and  sudden,  bursts  of  Northern  summers." 

In  an  extract  which  may  be  found  in  our  second  cha|> 
ter,  and  to  which  we  respectfully  refer  the  reader,  it  will 
be  seen  that  this  same  South  Carolinian,  speaking  of  "  not 
less  than  fifty  thousand"  non-slaveliolding  whites,  says — 
"  most  of  these  now  follow  agricultural  pursuits." 

Says  Dr.  Cartwright  of  New  Orleans  : — 

•'  Here  in  New  Orleans,  the  larger  part  of  the  drudgery — work 
requiring  exposure  to  the  sun,  as  railroad-making,  street-paving, 
dray-driving,  ditching  and,  building,  is  performed  by  white  peo- 
ple." 

To  the  statistical  tables  which  show  the  number  of 
deaths  in  the  free  and  in  the  slave  States  in  1850,  we 
would  dire:t  special  attentioa     Those  persons,  particu-. 


302  FREE  FIGURES  AN*D  SLAVE. 

larly  the  propogandists  of  negro  slavery,  who,  heretofore, 
have  been  so  dreadfully  exercised  on  account  of  what  they 
have  been  pleased  to  term  "  the  insalubrity  of  Southern 
climes,"  will  there  find  something  to  allay  their  fearful 
apprehensions.  A  critical  examination  of  said  tables  will 
disclose  the  fact  that,  in  proportion  to  population,  deaths 
occur  more  frequently  in  Massachusetts  than  in  any  South- 
ern State  except  Louisiana  ;  more  frequently  in  New  York 
than  in  any  of  the  Southern  States,  except  Maryland,  Mis- 
souri, Kentucky,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  ;  more  frequently 
in  New  Jersey,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  in  Ohio,  than  in 
either  Georgia,  Florida,  or  Alabama.  Leaving  Wisconsin 
and  Louisiana  out  of  the  account,  and  then  comparing  the 
bills  of  mortality  in  the  remaining  Northern  States,  with 
those  in  the  remaining  Southern  States,  we  find  the  differ- 
ence decidedly  in  favor  of  the  latter  ;  for,  according  to 
this  calculation,  while  the  ratio  of  deaths  is  as  only  one  to 
•14.60  of  the  living  population  in  the  Southern  States,  it  is 
as  one  to  *I2.39  in  the  Northern. 
Says  Dr.  J.  C.  Nott,  of  Mobile  :— 

"  Heat,  moisture,  animal  and  vegetable  matter  are  said  to  be 
the  elements  which  produce  the  diseases  of  the  South,  and  yet 
the  testimony  in  proof  of  the  health  of  the  banks  of  the  lower 
portion  of  the  Mississippi  River,  is  too  strong  to  be  doubted, — 
not  only  the  river  itself  but  also  the  numerous  bayous  which  me- 
ander through  Louisiana.  Here  is  a  perfectly  flat  alluvial  coun- 
tr}^,  covering  several  hundred  miles,  interspersed  with  intermina- 
ble lakes,  lagunes  and  jungles,  and  still  we  are  informed  by  Dr. 
Cartwright,  one  of  the  most  acute  observers  of  the  day,  that  this 
country  is  exempt  from  miasmatic  disorders,  and  is  extremely 
healthy.  His  assertion  has  been  confirmed  *o  me  by  hundreds 
of  witnesses,  and  we  know  from  our  own  observation,  that  the 
population  present  a  robust  and  healthy  appearance." 


fREE    FIGURES   ANT)    SLAVS. 

But  tlic  bcsi  /art  is  yet  to  come.  In  spite  of  all  the 
blatant  assertions  of  the  oligarchy,  that  the  climate  of  the 
South  was  arranged  expressly  for  the  negroes,  and  that 
the  negroes  were  created  expressly  to  inhabit  it  as  the 
healthful  servitors  of  other  men,  a  carefully  kept  register 
of  all  the  deaths  that  occurred  in  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina, for  the  space  of  six  years,  shows  that,  even  in  that 
locality  which  is  generally  regarded  as  so  unhealthy,  the 
annual  mortality  was  much  greater  among  the  blacks,  in 
proportion  to  population,  than  among  the  whites.  Dr.  Nott 
himself  shall  state  the  fi\cts.     He  says  : — 

"  The  average  mortality  for  the  last  six  years  in  Charleston 
for  all  ages  is  1  in  51,  including  all  classes.  Blacks  alone  1  in 
44  ;  whites  alone.  1  in  58 — a  very  remarkable  result,  certainly. 
This  mortality  is  perhaps  not  an  unfair  test,  as  the  population 
during  the  last  six  years  has  been  undisturbed  by  emigration  and 
acclimated  in  a  greater  proportion  than  at  any  former  period." 

Numerous  other  authorities  might  be  cited  in  proof  of 
the  general  healthiness  of  the  climate  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.  Of  127  remarkable  cases  of  American  lon- 
gevity, published  in  a  recent  edition  of  Blake's  Biographi- 
cal Dictionary,  68  deceased  centenarians  are  credited  to 
the  Southern  States,  and  59  to  the  Northern — the  list  being 
headed  with  Betsey  Trantham,  of  Tennessee — a  white  wo- 
man, who  died  in  1834,  at  the  extraordinarily  advanced  age 
of  154  years 


304 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


TABI.K    NO.    LVII. 

NATIVES  OF   THE  SLAVE  STATES  IN  THE  FREE    STATES,  AND    NATIVES 
OF  THE  FREE  STATES  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES. 1850. 


States. 

Natives  of  the 
Slave  States. 

States. 

Natives  of  the 
Free  States. 

California 

Connecticut 

24,055 

1,390 

144,809 

176,581 

31,392 

458 

2,980 

3,634 

215 

4,110 

12,625 

152,319 

47,180 

982 

140 

6,353 

609,223 

Alabama 

Arkansas ......... 

4,947 
7,965 
6  996 

Illinois 

Delaware 

Indiana 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky  ..„. 

Louisiana 

1  718 

Iowa 

4,249 
31,340 

Maine 

Massachusetts 

14,567 

Michicran 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

23,815 
4,517 

55,664 
2,167 
2,427 
6,571 
9,982 

28,999 

New-Hampshire 

New-Jersey 

New-York 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Tennesee 

Texas 

Virginia 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

205,924 

This  last  table,  compiled  from  the  116th  page  of  the 
Compendium  of  the  Seventh  Census,  shows,  in  a  most  lucid 
and  startling  manner,  how  negroes,  slavery  and  slave- 
holders are  driving  the  native  non-slaveholding  whites 
away  from  their  homes,  and  keeping  at  a  distance  other 
decent  people.  From  the  South  the  tide  of  emigration  still 
flows  in  a  westerly  and  north-westerly  direction,  and  it 
will  continue  to  do  so  until  slavery  is  abolished.  The  fol- 
lowing remarks,  which  we  extract  from  an  editorial  article 
that  appeared  in  the  Memphis  (Tenn.)  Bulletin  near  the 
close  of  the  year  1856,  are  worth  considering  in  this  con- 
nection : — • 


"  We  have  never  before  observed  so  large  a  number  of  immi- 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SlAVE.  305 

grants  going  westward  as  arc  crossing  the  river  at  tliis  jjoint 
daily,  the  twc  <l'rry  boats — sometimes  three — going  crowded  from 
early  morn  un.il  tlie  boats  cease  making  their  trips  at  night.  It 
is  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  from  twenty  to  fort}'  wagons  en- 
camped on  the  bluff  for  the  night,  notwithstanding  there  has 
been  a  steady  stream  going  across  the  river  all  day,  and  yet  the 
iry  is,  still  they  come." 

About  the  same  time  the  Cassville  (Geo.)  Standard 
spoke  with  surprise  of  the  multitude  of  emigrants  crowd 
ing  the  streets  of  that  town  bound  for  the  far  West. 

Prof.  B.  S.  Hedrick,  late  of  Chapel  Hill,  North  Carolina, 
says  : — 

"  Of  my  neighbors,  friends  and  kindred,  nearly  one-half  have 
left  the  State  since  I  was  old  enough  to  remember.  Many  is  the 
time  I  have  stood  by  the  loaded  emigrant  wagon,  and  given  the 
parting  hand  to  those  whose  faces  I  was  never  to  look  upon 
again.  They  were  going  to  seek  homes  in  the  free  West,  know- 
ing, as  they  did,  that  free  and  slave  labor  could  not  both  exist 
and  prosper  in  the  same  community.  If  any  one  thinks  that  I 
speak  without  knowledge,  let  him  refer  to  the  last  census.  He 
will  there  find  that  in  1850  there  were  fifty-eight  thousand  native 
North  Carolinians  living  in  the  free  States  of  the  "West — thirty- 
threc-thousand  in  Indiana  alone.  There  were,  at  the  same  time, 
one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  Virginians  living  in  the  free 
States.  Now,  if  these  people  were  so  much  in  love  with  the  '  in- 
stitution,' why  did  they  not  remain  where  they  could  enjoy  its 
blessings  ? 

"  From  my  knowledge  of  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  I  be- 
lieve that  the  majority  of  them  who  will  go  to  Kansas  during 
the  next  five  years,  would  prefer  that  it  should  be  a  free  State. 
I  am  sure  that  if  I  were  to  go  ihcre  I  should  vote  to  exclude 
blayery." 

For  daring  to  have  political  opinions  of  his  own,  and 
because  he  did  rot  deem  it  his  duty  to  conceal  the  fac-* 


306 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


that  he  loved  liberty  better  than  slavery,  the  g-allant  au- 
thor of  the  extract  above  quoted  was  peremptorily  dis- 
missed from  his  post  of  analytical  and  agricultural  chem- 
ist in  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  ignominiously 
subjected  to  the  indignities  of  a  mob,  and  then  savagely 
driven  beyond  the  borders  of  his  native  State.  His  vil- 
lainous persecutors,  if  not  called  to  settle  their  accounts 
in  another  world  within  the  next  ten  years,  will  probably 
survive  to  repent  of  the  enormity  of  their  pro-slavery 
folly. 

TABLE   NO.    LVIII. 

VALUE  OF  THE    SLAVES  AT  $400  PER  HEAD. 1850.* 


States. 

Value  of  the  Sl.ives 
at  $400  per  head. 

Val.  of  Real  and  Per. 
Estate,  Ie.*s  the  val.  of 
slaves  at  $400  p.  bead. 

Alabama > 

;b'l  37,187.600 

18,840,000 

916,000 

15,724,000 

152672.800 
84,892,400 
97,923,600 
36.147,200 

123,951,200 
34.968,^00 

115,419,200 

153,998,600 
95,783,600 
23.264,400 

189,011,200 

S81  066  782 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

21,001,025 
17,989,863 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

7,474.734 
182,752,914 
217,236,056 
186,075,164 
183,070.164 
105,000.000 
102,278,907 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 

111,381,272 

South  Carolina 

134,264,094 

Tennessee 

111,671,104 

Texas 

32  097,940 

Virninia 

202,634,638 

81,280145,600 

SI, 655,945,1 37 

Tables  34  and  35  show  that,  on  account  of  the  pitiable 
poverty  and  ignorance  of  slavery,  the  mails  were  trans- 
ported throughout  the  Southern  States,  during  the  year 

*  It  is  intended  that  thia  Table  shall  be  considered  in  connection  with  Tables 
XX  ind  XXI,  on  page  80. 


FREE    FTGl'RES    AKD    SLAVE. 


30' 


1855,  at  an  extra  cost  to  the  General  Government  of  moro 
than  six  Imndred  thousand  doHars  I  In  the  free  States, 
postages  were  received  to  the  amount  of  more  than  two 
millions  of  duUars  over  and  above  the  cost  of  transporta- 
tion. 

To  Dr.  G.  Bailey,  editor  of  the  National  Era,  Washington 
city,  D.  C,  we  are  indebted  for  the  following  useful  and 
interesting  statistics,  to  which  some  of  our  readers  will 
doubtless  have  frequent  occasion  to  refer  :- 


PRESIDENTS    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 


Appointed. 

March  4.  1789 

'•  3:  1707 
March  4.  1797 

"^  3.  1801 
March  4.  1801 

•'  3,  1.H09 
March  4.  1809 

••  3.  1817 
March  4,  1817 

"  3.  1825 
March  4,  1825 

••  3.  1829 
March  4,  1829 

"  3,  1837 
March  4.  1837 

"  3,  1841 
March  4,  1841 

"  3,  1845 
March  4,  1845 

"  3,  1849 
March  4,  1849 

"  3,  18.V3 
March  4,  1853 

••  3,  ;857 
Maroh4,  1867 

'•       3,  VX\ 


George  Washington,  Virginia, 
John  Adams,  Massachusetts. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Virginia. 
James  Madison,  Virginia. 
James  Monroe,  Virginia. 
John  Q.  Adams,  Massachusetts. 


Andrew  Jackson,  Tennessee. 


Martin  Yan  Buren,  New  York. 
William  II.  Harrison,  Ohio. 
James  K.  Polk,  Tennessee. 
Zachary  Taylor,  Louisiana. 
Franklin  Pierce,  New  Hampshire. 
James  Buchanan,  Pennsylvania. 


At  the  close  of  «^«  term  for  which  Mr.  Buchanan  is  elected, 


308  FREE    FIGURES    AND    ST^AVE. 

it  will  have  been  seventy-two  3'cars  since  the  organization  of  the 
present  Government. 

In  that  period,  there  have  been  eighteen  elections  for  Presi- 
dent, the  candidates  chosen  in  twelve  of  them  being  Southern 
men  and  slaveholders,  in  six  of  them  Northern  men  and  non- 
slaveholders. 

No  Northern  man  has  ever  been  re-elected,  but  five  Southern 
men  have  been  thus  honored. 

Gen.  Harrison,  of  Ohio,  died  one  month  after  his  inauguration, 
Gen.  Taylor,  of  Louisiana,  about  four  months  after  his  inaugura- 
tion. In  the  former  case,  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  became  act- 
ing President,  in  the  latter,  Millard  Fillmore,  of  New  York. 

Of  the  seventy-two  years,  closing  with  Mr.  Buchanan's  term, 
should  he  live  it  out,  Southern  men  and  slaveholders  have  occu- 
pied the  Presidential  chair  forty-eight  years  and  three  months, 
or  a  little  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  time. 

THE    SUPREME    COURT. 

The  judicial  districts  are  organized  so  as  to  give  five  judges 
to  the  slave  States,  and  four  to  the  free,  although  the  population, 
wealth,  and  business  of  the  latter  are  far  in  advance  of  those  of 
the  former.  The  arrangement  affords,  however,  an  excuse  for 
constituting  the  Supreme  Court,  with  a  majority  of  judges  fr:ra 
the  slaveholding  States. 

MEMBERS. 

Chief  Justice— R.  B.  Taney,  Maryland. 
Associate  Justice — J.  M.  Wayne,  Georgia. 

'•'  "  John  Catron,  Tennessee. 

"  "  P.  V.  Daniel,  Virginia. 

"  "  John  A.  Campbell.  Alabama^ 

«  "  John  McLean,  Ohio. 

"  "  S.  Nelson,  New  Yoik. 

"  "  R.  C.  Grier,  Pennsylvania. 

"  "  B.  R.  Curtis,  MassachiLsetls. 

Reporter— B.  C.  Howard,  Maryland. 
Clerk— \T    T.  Carroll.  7).  C. 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE.  309 

SECRETARIES    OF    STATE. 

rhe  highest  office  in  the  Cabinet  is  that  of  Secretary  of  State, 
vho  has  under  his  charge  the  fon-ign  relations  of  the  country. 
Since  the  year  1789,  there  have  been  twenty-two  appointments 
to  the  office — fourteen  from  slave  States,  eight  from  free.  Or, 
founting  by  years,  the  post  has  been  filled  by  Southern  men  and 
daveholders  very  nearly  forty  years  out  of  sixty-seven,  as  follows  : 
Appointed. 

Sept.  26.  1780,  Thomas  Jefnrson,  Virginia. 
Jan.     2,  1794,  E.  Randolph,  Virginia. 
Dec.  10,  1795,  T.  Pickering.  Mcissachiisetts. 
May   13,  1800|  J.  Marshall    Virginia. 
March  5,  1801,  James  Madison,    Virginia. 
March  6,  1809,  R.  Smith,  Miryland. 
April    2,  1811,  James  Monroe,    Virginia. 
Feb.  28,  1815,       »  ''  " 

March  5,  1815,  J.  Q.  Adams,  Massachusetts. 
March  7,  1825,  Henry  Clay,  Kevtucky. 
March  C,  1829,  Martin  Van  Buren,  New  York. 
May  24,  iSo],  E.  Livingston,  Louisiana. 
May  29,  183  5,  Louis  Mi  Lane,  Delaware. 
June  27,  1834,  J.  Forsyth,  Georgia. 
March  5,  1841,  Daniel  Webster,  Massachusetts, 
July  24,  1843,  A.P.Upshur,  Virginia. 
March  6,  1844,  J.  C.  Calhoun,  South  Carolina. 
March 5,  1845,  James  Buchanan,  Pennsylvania. 
March 7,  1849,  J.  M.  Clayton,  Delaware. 
July  20,  1850.  Daniel  Webster,  Massor.husetts. 
Dec.    9,  1851,  E.  Everett,  Mas<achmefts. 
March  5,  1853,  W.  L.  Murcy,  New  York. 

PRESIDENTS    PRO  TEM.  OF  THE  SENATE. 

»  Tice  the  year  1809,  every  President  pro  tern,  of  the  Senate  of 
the  Cnited  States  has  been  a  Southern  man  and  slaveholder,  with 
the  exception  of  Samuel  L.  Southard,  of  New  Jersey,  who  held 
the  office  for  a  very  short  time,  and  Mr.  Bright,  of  indiana,who  has 
held   ♦,  for  on€  or   tw    sessions,  we  believe,  havin^r  been  elected. 


310 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


however,  as  a  known  adherent  of  the  slave  interest,  be.  eved  to 
be  interested  in  slave  "  property." 

SPEAKERS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 


April,  1789 
March  3,  1791 
Oct.  24.  1791 
March  2.  1793 
Dec.  2,  1793 
March  3.  1795 
Dec.  7,  1795 
March  3, 1797 
May  15,  1797 
March  3,  1799 
Dec.  2,  1799 
March  3,  1801 
Dec.  7,  1801 
March  3,1807 
Oct.  26,  1807 
March  3,  1811 
March  4.  1811 
Jan.  19,  1814 
Jan.  19,  1814 
March  2,  1815 
Dec.  4,  1815 
Nov.  13,  1820 
Nov.  15.  1820 
March  3,  1821 
Dec.  3,  1821 
March  3,  1823 
Dec.  1,  1823 
March  3,  1825 
Dec.  5,  1825 
INIarch  3.  1827 
Dec.  3,  1827 
June  2,  1834 
June  2,  1834 
March  3.  1835 
Dec.  7,  1835 
March  3,  1839 
Dec.  16,  1839 
March  3,  1841 
May  31,  1841 
Mtk-ch  3,  1843 


F.  A.  Muhlenberg,  Fenn. 
J.  Trumbull,  Connecticut. 


F.  A.  Muhlenberg,  Penn. 


Jonathan  Dayton,  New  Jersey, 

Theodore  Sedgwick,  Mass. 
Nathaniel  jMacon,  N.  Car. 
J.  B.  Yarnum,  Massackiisetis, 
Henry  Clay,  Kentucky. 
Langdon  Cheves,  S.  Car. 
^  Henry  Clay,  Kentucky. 

>  J.  W.  Taylor,  New-York. 

>  P.  B.  Barbour,  Virginia. 

>  Henry  Clay,  Kentucky. 

\  J.  W.  Taylor,  New-York. 
A.  Stevenson,  Virginia. 
John  Bell,  Tennessee. 
James  K.  Polk,  Tennessee. 
11.  :M.  T.  Hunter,  Virginia, 
J  zhn  White,  Tennessee. 


FRF.E  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


311 


T>cc.  4,  1843 
March  3.  1S45 
Dec.  1.  184') 
March  3,  1S47 
Dec.  0,  1847 
March  3.  1849 
Dec.  22,  1840 
March  3,  1851 
Dec.  1,  1851 
March  3,  1853 
Dec.  1,  1853 
March  3.  1855 
Feb.  28,  185G 
March  3,  1857 


J  J.  W.  Jones,  Virginia. 
J  J.  W.  Davis,  hidiana. 
i  R.  C.  Winthrop,  Mass. 
i  IIowcll  Cobb,  Georgia. 
i  Linn  Boyd,  Kentucky. 

i  Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  Mass. 


POSTMASTERS-GENERAL. 

Appointed— 

Sept.  2G,  1789,  S.  Osgood,  Massachusetts. 
Aug.  12,  1791,  T.  Pickering,  Massachusetts. 
Feb.   25,  1795,  J.  Ilabershani,  Georgia. 
Nov.  28,  1801,  G.  Granger.  Connecticut. 
March  17. 1814,  R.  J.  Meigs,  Ohio. 
Jane  25,  1823.  John  MoLean,  Ohio. 
March  9^  1829.  W.  T.  Barry,  Kentucky. 
May    1.    1835,  A.  Kendall,  Kentucky. 
May   18,  1840,  J.  M.  Niles,  Connecticut. 
March  6,  1841,  F.  Granger,  New  York. 
Sept.  13,  1841,  C.  A.  Wickliffe,  Kentucky. 
March  5,  1845,  C.  Johnson,  Tennessee. 
March  7.  1849.  J.  Collamer,   Vermont. 
July  20,  1850,  N.  K.  Hall,  New  York. 
Aug.  31,  1852,  S.  D.  Hubbard,  Connecticut. 
March  5,  1853,  J.  Campbell,  Pennsylvania. 
Sectionalism  docs  not  seem  to  have  had  much  to  do  with  this 
Department   ^r  with  that  of  the  Interior,  created  in  lS48-'49. 


812  FREE    FIGURES   AND    SLAVE. 

SECRETARIES    OF   THE    INTERIOR. 
Appointed — 

March  7,  1849,  T.  Ewing,  Ohio. 

July   20,  1850,  J.  A.  Pearce,  Maryland. 

Aug.  15,'  1850,  T.  M.  T.  McKennon,  Pennsylvania, 

Sept.  12,  1850,  A.  H.  H.  Stuart,   Virginia. 

March  5,  1853,  R.  McClelland,  Michigan, 

ATTORNEYS-GENERAL. 
Appointed- 
Sept.  26,  1789,  E.  Randolph,    Virginia. 
June  27,  1794.  W.  Bradford.  Pennsylvania. 
Dec.  10,  1795,  C.  Lee,  Virginia, 
Feb.  20,  1801,  T.  Parsons,  Massachusetts. 
March  5,  1800,  L.  Lincoln,  Massachusetts. 
March  2,  1805,  R.  Smith,  Maryland. 
Dec.  23,  1805,  J.  Breckinridge,  Kentucky. 
Jan.  20,  1807,  C.  A.  Rodnej,  Pennsylvania. 
Dec.  11,  1811,  W.  Pinkney,  Maryland. 
Feb.  10, 1814,  R.  Rush,  Pennsylcanid. 
Nov.  13,  1817,  W.  Wirt,   Virginia. 
March  9, 1829,  J.  McPherson  Berrien,  GeorgicL 
July  20,  1831,  Roger  B.  Taney,  Maryland. 
Nov.  15,  1833,  B.  F.  Butler,  New  York. 
July  7,  1838,  F.  Grundy,  Tennessee. 
Jan.  10,  1840,  H.  D.  Gilpin,  Pennsylvania. 
March  5, 1841,  J.  J.  Crittenden,  Kentucky. 
Sept.  13,18n,  II.  S.  Legare,  South  Carolina. 
July   1,  1843,  John  Nelson,  Maryland. 
March  5,  1845,  J.  Y.  Mason,  Virginia. 
Oct.    17,  1846,  N.  Clifford,  Maine. 
June  21, 1848,  Isaac  Touccy,  Connecticut. 
March  7, 1849,  R.  Johnson,  Maryland. 
July  20,  1850,  J.  J.  Crittenden,  Kentucky. 
March  5  1858,  C.  Gushing,  Massachusetts. 


FREE    nr.UIlES    AN'D    3L1VK.  318 

SECRETARIES    OF   THE    TREASURY. 

/lie  post  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  although  one  ol  jjreat 
»%..{K>rtance,  requires  financial  abilities  of  a  high  order,  which  are 
more  fri-qucntly  found  in  the  XoKh  than  in  the  South,  and  affords 
Httle  opportunity  for  intluencing  general  politics,  or  the  questions 
springing  out  of  Shivery.  We  need  not  therefore  be  surpr'jsed 
to  Irarn  tluit  Northern  men  have  been  allowed  to  discharge  its 
diM.Gs  some  forty-eight  years  out  of  sixty-seven,  as  follows: 

4>polnted— 

Sept.  11, 1789,  A.  Hamilton,  New  York, 
Feb.  3,  1795,  0.  Wolcott,  Connecticut. 
Dec.  31,  1800,  S.  Dexter,  Massachusetts. 
May  14,  1801,  A.  Gallatin,  Pennsylvania. 
Feb.   9,  1814.  G.  W.  Campbell,  Tennessee. 
Oct.   6,  1814,  A.  J.  Dallas,  Pennsylvrania. 
Oct  22,  181G,  W.  XL  Crawford,  Georgia. 
March  7,1825,  R.  Rush,  Pennsylvania. 
March  G,  1829,  S.  D.  Ingham,  Pennsylvania. 
Aug.   8,  1831,  L.  McLane,  Delaware. 
May  29,  1833,  W.  J.  Duane,  Pennsylvania. 
Sept.  23, 1833,  Roger  B.  Taney,  Maryland. 
June  27, 1834,  L.  Woodbury,  New  Hampshire. 
March5, 1841,  Thomas  Ewing,  Ohio. 
Sept.  13,  1841,  W.  Forward,  Pennsylvania. 
March  3,  1843,  J.  C.  Spencer,  New  York. 
June  15,  1844,  G.  M.  Bibb,  Kentucky. 
March  5, 1845,  R.  J.  Walker,  Mississippi. 
March  7, 1849,  W.  M.  Meredith,  Pennsylvania. 
June  20,  1850,  Thomas  Corwin,  Ohio. 
March  5,  1843,  James  Guthrie,  Kentucky. 

SECRETARIES    OF    WAR   AND   THE    NA^'Y. 

The  Slaveholders  since  March  8th,  1841,  a  period  of  Ovarly 
sixteen  years,  have  taken  almost  exclusive  supervision  of  the 
Nivy.  Northern  men  having  occupied  the  Sccretar}'8hip  only  two 

14 


314  FREE    FIGURES   AND    SLAVE. 

years.  Nor  has  any  Northern  man  been  Secretary  of  War  since 
1849.  Considering  that  nearly  all  the  shipping  belongs  to  the 
free  States,  which  also  supply  the  seamen,  it  does  seem  remarka- 
ble that  Slaveholders  should  have  monopolized  for  the  last  six- 
teen years  the  control  of  the  Navy. 

SECRETARIES   OF   WAR. 
Appointed- 
Sept.  12,  1789,  Henry  Knox,  Massachusetts, 
Jan.     2,   1795,  T.  Pickering,  Massachusetts. 
Jan.  27,   179G,  J.  McHenry,  Maryland. 
May     7,    1800,  J.  Marshall,   Virginia. 
May   13,  1800,  S.  Dexter,  MassachuspMs. 
Feb.     3,    1801,  R.  Griswold,  Connecticut. 
March  5,  1801,  H.  Dearborn,  Massachusetts, 
March  7,  1802,  ^Y.  Eustis,  Massachusetts. 
Jan.    13,  1813,  J.  Armstrong,  New  York. 
Sept.  27,  1814,  James  Monroe,    Virginia. 
March  3,  1815,  W.  H.  Crawford,  Georgia, 
April   7,   1817,  G.  Graham,   Virginia. 
March  5,  ]  817,  J.  Shelby,  Kentucky. 
Oct.     8,  1817,  J.  C.  Calhoun.  South  Carolina 
March  7,  1825,  J.  Barbour,    Virginia. 
May  26,  1828,  P.  B.  Porter,  Pennsylvania, 
March  9,  1829,  J.  II.  Eaton,  Tennessee. 
Aug.    1,  1831,  Lewis  Cass,  Ohio. 
March  3,  1837,  B.  F.  Butler,  New  York. 
March  7,  1837,  J.  R.  Poinsett,  South  Caroline 
March  5,  1841,  James  Bell,  Tennessee. 
Sept.  13,  1841,  John  McLean,  Ohio. 
Oct.  12,  1841,  J.  C.  Spencer,'  Neio  York. 
March  8,  1843,  J.  W.  Porter,  Pennsylvania. 
Feb.   15,  1844,  W.  Wilkins,  Pennsylvania. 
March  5, 1845,  William  L.  Marcy,  New  York 
March  7, 1849,  G.  W.  Crawford,  Georgia. 
July  20, 1850,  E.  Bates,  Missouri. 
Aug.  15,  1850,  C.  M.  Conrad,  Louisiana. 
March  5,   853,  Jefi'erson  Davie  Mississippi, 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE.  815 


SECRETARIES    OF   THE    NAVY. 

Appointed- 
May    3,  1798,  G.  Cabot,  M.issachusetts. 
May  21,  1798,  B.  Stoddart,  Massachusetts. 
July  15,  1801,  R.  Smith,  Maryland. 
May    3,  1805,  J.  Crowninshield,  Massachusetts. 
March  7,  1809,  P.  Hamilton,  South  Carolina. 
Jan.    12, 1813,  W.  Jones,  Pennsylvania. 
Dec.  17,  1814,  B.  W.  Crowninshield,  Massachusetts. 
Nov.   9,  1818,  Smith  Thompson,  New  York. 
Sept.    1,  1823,  John  Rogers,  Massachusetts. 
Sept.  16,  1823,  S.  L.  Southard,  New  Jersey. 
March  9,  1819,  John  Branch,  North  Carolina. 
May   23,  1831,  L.  "Woodbury,  New  Hampshire. 
June  30,  1834,  M.  Dickcrson,  NeiD  Jersey. 
June  20,  1838,  J.  K.  Paulding,  New  York. 
March  5,  1841,  G.  F.  Badger,  North  Carolina. 
Sept.  13, 1841,  A.  P.  Upshur,   Virginia. 
July  24,  1843,  D.  Ilenshaw,  Massachusetts. 
Feb.    12,  1844,  T.  W.  Gilmer,    Virginia. 
March  14. 1844,  Janies  Y.  Mason,    Virginia. 
March  10, 1845,  G.  Bancroft,  Massachusetts. 
Sept.     9,  184C,  James  Y.  Mason,    Virginia. 
March  7,  1849,  W.  B.  Preston,   Virginia. 
July  20,  1850,  W.  A.  Graham,  N.  Carolina. 
July  22.  1852,  J.  P.  Kennedy,  Maryland. 
March  3,  1853,  J.  C.  Dobbin,  N.  Carolina. 

RECAriTULATIOX. 

Presidency. — Southern  men  and  Slaveholders,  48  vcirs  3 
months  ;  Northern  men,  23  years  9  months. 

Pro.  Tern.  Presidency  oj  the  Senate. — Since  1809,  held  by 
Southern  men  and  Slaveholders,  except  for  three  ( r  four  sesiions 
by  Northern  men. 

Sjyeakership  of  the  House. — Filled  by  Southern  men  and  Slave- 
holder? forty -three  years,  Northern  men,  twcnty-fivo. 


bl6  FREE    HGURES   AND    SLAVE. 

Szqtreme  Court. — A  majority  of  the  Judges,  including  ^hief 
Justice,  Southern  men  and  Slaveholders. 

Stcretaryship  of  State. — Filled  by  Sout)iern  men  and  Slave* 
holders  forty  years,  Northern,  twenty-seven. 

Attorney  Generalship. — Filled  by  Southern  men  and  Slave- 
holders forty- two  years,  Northern  men,  twenty-five. 

War  and  Navy. — Secretaryship  of  the  Navy,  Southern  men  and 
Slaveholders,  the  last  sixteen  years,  with  an  interval  of  two 
years. 

William  Henry  Hurlbut,  of  South  Carolina,  a  gentle- 
man of  enviable  literary  attainments,  and  one  from  whom 
we  may  expect  a  continuation  of  good  service  in  the  emi- 
nently holy  crusade  now  going  on  against  slavery  and 
the  devil,  furnished  not  long  since,  to  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
view, in  the  course  of  a  long  and  highly  interesting  article, 
the  following  summary  of  oligarchal  usurpations — show- 
ing that  shaveholders  have  occupied  the  principal  posts 
of  the  Government  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  time  : — 


Presidents         .        -        -        - 

11  out  of    16 

Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 

-     17  out  of   28 

Attorneys-General    -        -        - 

14  out  of   19 

Presidents  of  the  Senate 

-    61  out  of   77 

Speakers  of  the  House 

21  out  of   33 

Foreign  Ministers          -        .         - 

-    80  out  of  134 

As  a  matter  of  general  interest,  and  as  showing  that, 
while  there  have  been  but  11  non-slaveholders  directly  be- 
fore the  people  as  candidates  for  the  Presidency,  there 
have  been  at  least  16  slaveholders  who  were  willing  to 
serve  their  country  in  the  capacity  of  chief  magistrate, 
the  following  tabl    may  be  here  introduced  : — 


I 


FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 


317 


RESn.T    OF   THE    PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTIONS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATE3 

FROM  779G  TO  1856. 


Tear. 
179G 


s 

1800  i 


1S04 


1832- 


1830 


185G 


•  No  choice 


Name  of  Candidate.  Elect'l  vola 

John  Adams      -  -                           -             71 

Thomas  Jt'tlVrson     -  -             .                   68 

riiomas  Jt'tlcrsoa  -             -             •             73 

.lolni  Adams             _  -             -                   64 

Thotnas  Jofrorson  -             _             _           1G2 

Charles  C.  Pinckncj  -             -                   14 

James  Madison  -             -             -           128 

Charles  C.  Pinckney  -             -                   45 

James  Madison  -             .             _           122 

l)e  Witt  Clinton      -  -            -                  89 

James  Monroe  -  -            -            -          183 

Kufus  King  -            -  -            -                  34 

James  Monroe  -  -             -             -           218 
Xo  opposition  but  one  vote  - 

Andrew  Jackson*  -             -             -             99 

J.)hn  Q.  Adams        -  -             -                   84 

W.  II.  Crawford  -             -             .             41 

Henry  Clay                _  -             _                    37 

Andrew  Jackson  -             _             .           178 

John  Q.  Adams        -  -             _                   83 

Andrew  Jackson  -            .            _          219 

Ilenrv  Clay               -  .             -                   49 

John'Flovd       -  -            -            -            11 

William  Wirt           -  -             -                     7 

Martin  Van  Buren  -             -            .           170 

William  II.  Harrison  -            -                   73 

IIuo;h  L.  White  -            -            -            26 

Willie  P.  Mangum  -  -             -                   H 

Daniel  Webster  ...             14 

William  II.  Harrison  -             -                 2.>4 

Martin  Van  Buren  -             -             -             GO 

James  K.  Polk         -  -             -                 ]70 

Henry  Clay        -  -             -             -           105 

Zachary  Taylor         -  -             .                 1(33 

Lewis  Cass         -  -             -             -           127 

Franklin  Pierce        -  -             >                 254 

General  Winlield  Scott  -                          42 

James  Buchanan      -  -             .                 174 

John  C.  Fremont  -                          -           114 

Millard  Fillmore  -             >         -                     y 

hy  tl>o  people  ;  Jola  Q.  AdanoB  elected  by  the  House  of  Rcf  re^-ry 


318  FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 

AID    FOR    KANSAS. 

As  a  sort  of  accompaniment  to  tables,  50,  51,  52  and  53, 
we  will  here  introduce  a  few  items  which  will  more  fully 
illustrate  the  liberality  of  Freedom  and  the  niggardliness 
of  Slavery. 

From  an  editorial  article  that  appeared  in  the  Rich- 
mond (Va.,)  Dispatch,  in  July,  1856,  bewailing  the  close- 
fistedness  of  slavery,  we  make  the  following  extract : — 

"  Gerrit  Smith,  the  Abolitionist,  has  just  pledged  himself  to 
give  $1,500  a  mouth  for  the  next  twelve  months  to  aid  in  estab- 
lishing Freedom  in  Kansas.  He  gave,  but  a  short  time  since,  at 
the  Kansas  relief  meeting  in  Albany,  §3,000.  Prior  to  that,  he 
had  sent  about  §1,000  to  the  Boston  Emigrant  Committee.  Out 
of  his  oNrn  funds,  he  subsequently  equipped  a  Madison  county 
company,  of  one  hundred  picked  men.  and  paid  their  expenses 
to  Kansas.  At  Syracuse  he  subscribed  §10,000  for  Abolition 
purposes,  so  that  his  entire  contributions  amount  to  at  least 
§40,000." 

An  Eastern  paper  says  : — 

"  The  sura  of  §500  was  contributed  at  a  meeting  at  New  Bed- 
ford on  Monday  evening,  to  make  Kansas  free.  The  following 
sums  have  been  contributed  for  the  same  purpose:  §2,000  in 
Taunton  :  §600  in  Raynham  :  §800  in  Clinton :  §300  in  Danbury, 
Ct.  In  Wisconsin,  §2,500  at  Janesville  :  §500  at  Dalton :  §500 
at  the  Women's  Aid  Meeting  in  Chicago :  §2,000  in  Rockford,  111." 

A  telegraphic  dispatch,  dated  Boston,  January  2,  1857, 
informs  us  that — 

"  The  Secretary  of  the  Kansas  Aid  Committee  acknowledges 
the  receipt  of  §42,678." 

Exclusive  of  the  amounts  above,  the  readers  of  the  New- 


FIIEE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE.  319 

York  IVibune  have  contributed  about  $30.  ^00  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  Kansas  to  Freedom  ;  and,  with  the  same 
object  iu  view,  other  individuals  and  societies  have,  from 
time  to  time,  made  large  contributions,  of  which  we  have 
failed  to  keep  a  memorandum.  The  legislature  of  Ver- 
mont has  appropriated  $20,000  ;  and  other  free  State 
legislatures  are  prepared  to  appropriate  millions,  if  neces- 
sary. Free  men  have  determined  that  Kansas  shall  be 
free,  and  free  it  soon  shall  be,  and  ever  so  remain.  Har- 
moniously the  work  proceeds. 

Now  let  us  see  how  slavery  has  rewarded  the  poor,  ig- 
norant, deluded,  and  degraded  mortals — swaggering  lick- 
spittles— who  have  labored  so  hard  to  gain  for  it  "  a  local 
habitation  and  a  name"  in  the  disputed  territory.  One  D. 
B.  Atchison,  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  Bor- 
der RuGSans,  shall  tell  us  all  about  it.  Over  date  of  Octo- 
ber 13th,  185C,  he  says  : 

'*  Up  to  this  moment,  from  all  the  States  except  Missouri,  vre 
have  only  received  the  following  sums,  and  through  the  following 
persons : — 

A.  W.  Jones,  Houston,  Miss.,      .         .         .         .        ^152 

II.  D.  Clayton,  Eufala,  Ala., 500 

Capt.  Deedrick.  South  Carolina,  ...  500 

$1,152." 

On  this  subject,  further  comment  is  unnecessary. 

Numerous  other  contrasts,  equally  disproportionate, 
might  be  drawn  between  the  vigor  and  munificence  of 
freedom  and  the  impotence  and  stinginess  of  slavery.  We 
will,  however,  in  addition  to  the  above,  advert  to  only  a 
ijiniile  instance.     During  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of 


320  FREE    IT.-:rRES    AND    SIjVVE. 

1855,  the  citizens  of  the  niggervilles  of  Nckfolk  and  Ports- 
mouth, in  Virginia,  were  sorely  plagued  with  yellow  fever. 
Many  of  them  fell  victims  to  the  disease,  and  most  of  those 
who  survived,  and  who  were  not  too  unwell  to  travel,  left 
their  homes,  horror-stricken  and  dejected.  To  the  horror 
of  mankind  in  general,  and  to  the  glory  of  freemen  in  par- 
ticular, contributions  in  money,  provisions,  clothing,  and 
other  valuable  supplies,  poured  in  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers.  Portsmouth  alone, 
according  to  the  report  of  her  relief  association,  received 
$42,541  in  cash  from  the  free  States,  and  only  $12,182  in 
cash  from  all  the  slave  States,  exclusive  of  Virginia,  within 
whose  borders  the  malady  prevailed.  Including  Virginia, 
the  sum  total  of  all  the  slave  State  contributions  amounted 
to  only  $33,398.  Well  did  the  Richmond  Examiner  remark 
at  the  time — "  we  fear  that  generosity  of  Virginians  is  but 
a  figure  of  speech."     Slavery  I  thy  name  is  shame  I 

In  CONNECTION  with  tables  44  and  45  on  page  292,  it  will 
be  well  to  examine  the  following  statistics  of  Congressional 
representation,  which  we  transcribe  from  Reynold's  Polit- 
ical Map  of  the  United  States  : — 

UNITED    STATES    SENATE. 

16  free  States,  with  a  white  population  of  13.238,070,  have  32 
Senators. 

15  slave  States,  with  a  white  population  of  6.186,477,  have  30 
Sena*  )rs. 

Sc  :hat  413,708  free  men  of  the  North  enjoy  but  the  same  pol- 
itical privileges  in  the  U.  S.  Senate  as  is  given  to  206,215  slave 
propagandists, 


FREE    FIGCRES    AND    SLAVE.  821 

HOUSE    OF   REPRESENTATIVES. 

The  free  States  have  a  total  of  144  members. 

The  slave  States  have  a  total  of  UO  members. 

One  free  State  Representative  represents  91,935  T^4.i:e  men 
and  women. 

One  slave  State  Representative  represents  CS,725  white  men 
and  women. 

Slave  Representation  gives  to  slavery  an  advantage  over  free 
dom  of  30  votes  in  the  ilouse  of  Representatives. 

CUSTOM-HOCSE   RECEIPTS. 1854. 

Free  States, $00,010,489 

Slave  States, 5,1::;G,9G9 

Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States, —  .   $54,873,520 

A  contrast  quite  distiuguishable  ! 

That  the  apologists  of  slavery  cannot  excuse  the  sliame 
and  the  shabbincss  of  themselves  and  their  country,  as  we 
have  frequently  heard  them  attempt  to  do,  by  falsely  as- 
serting that  the  North  has  enjoyed  over  the  South  the  ad- 
vantag-es  of  priority  of  settlement,  will  fully  appear  from 
the  following  table  : — 

free  states. 

1C14.  New- York  first  settled  by  the  Dutch. 
1C20.  Massachusetts  settled  by  the  Puritans. 
1C23.  New-Hampshire  settled  by  the  Puritans. 
1G24.  New-Jersey  settled  by  the  Dutch. 
1035.  Connecticut  settled  by  the  Puritans. 
1C3G.  Rhode  Island  settled  by  Roger  Williams. 
168ii  Pennsylvania  settled  by  "NVilliam  Penn. 
1791.  Vermont  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1802.  Ohio  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1816.  Indiana  admitted  into  the  Unioa. 
14* 


822  FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVl 

1818.  Illinois  admitted  into  the  TJnJon. 
1820.  Maine  admitted  into  the  Union. 
183G.  Michigan  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1846.  Iowa  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1848.  "Wisconsin  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1850.  California  admitted  into  the  Union. 

SLAVE    STATES. 

1007.  Yirg  jia  first  settled  by  the  English. 
1G27.  Delaware  settled  by  the  Swedes  and  Fins. 
1G35.  Maryland  settled  by  Irish  Catholics. 
1050.  North  Carolina  settled  by  the  English. 
1070.  South  Carolina  settled  by  the  Huguenots. 
1733.  Georgia  settled  by  Gen.  Oglethorpe. 
1782.  Kentucky  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1796.  Tennessee  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1811.  Louisiana  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1817.  Mississippi  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1810.  Alabama  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1821.  Missouri  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1836.  Arkansas  admitted  into  the  Union. 

1845.  Florida  admitted  into  the  Union. 

1846.  Texas  admitted  into  the  Union. 

In  the  course  of  an  exceedingly  interesting  article  on 
ihe  early  settlements  in  America,  R.  K.  Browne,  formerly 
editor  and  proprietor  of  the  San  Francisco  Evening  Jaurnalj 
says  : — 

'■  Many  people  seem  to  think  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  wore 
the  first  who  settled  upon  our  shores,  and  therefore  that  they 
ought  to  be  entitled,  in  a  particular  manner,  to  our  remembrance 
and  esteem. 

This  is  not  the  case,  and  we  herewith  present  to  our  readers  a 
list  of  settlements  nade  in  the  present  United  States,  prior  to 
that  of  Plymouth  • 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE.  323 

1504.  A  Colony  of  French  Protestants  under  Ribaull  settled 
in  Florida. 

15G5.  St.  AugTistine*  founded  by  Pedro  Melendcz. 

1584.  Sir  Walter  Kaleigh  obtains  a  patent  and  sends  t\ro  ves- 
sels to  the  American  coast,  which  receives  the  name  of  Virginia, 

1607.  The  first  effectual  settlement  made  at  Jamestown,  Va., 
by  the  London  Company. 

1014.  A  fort  erected  by  the  Dutch  upon  the  site  of  Xew-York. 

1615.  Fort  Orange  built  near  the  site  of  Albany,  X.  Y. 

1G19.  The  first  General  Assembly  called  in  Virginia. 

IGJO.  The  Pilgrims  land  on  Plymouth  Rock." 

FREEDOM    AND    SL^UERY    AT    THE    FAIR. 
WUAT     FREEDOM     DID. 

At  an  Agricultural  Fair  held  at  Watertowii,  in  the  State 
of  New-York,  on  the  2d  day  of  October,  1856,  two  hundred 
and  twenty  premiums,  ranging  from  three  to  fifty  dollars 
each,  were  awarded  to  successful  competitors — the  aggre- 
gate amount  of  said  premiums  being  $2,396,  or  an  average 
of  $10.89  each.  From  the  proceedings  of  the  Awarding 
Committee  we  make  the  following  extracts  : — ■ 

Best  Ilorse  Colt,  George  Parish,   -  §25.00 

Best  Filly,  J.  Staplin,  -     -     -  20.00 

Best  Brood  Mare,  A.  Blunt,  -     -     -  25.00 

Best  Bull,  Wm.  Johnson,       -  25.00 

Best  Heifer,  A.  M.  Rogers,     -  20.00 

Best  Cow,  C.  Baker,    -     -     -  25.00 

Best  Stall-fL'd  Beef,  J.  W.  Taylor,     -  10.00 

Best  sample  Wheat,  Wm.  Ottley,    -     .  5.00 

Best  sample  Flaxseed,  11.  "Weir,  -     -     .  3.00 

Best  sample  Timothy  Seed,  E.  S.  Hay  ward      -  .3.00 

(Highest)    Best  Team  of  Oxen,  Hiram  Converse,  50.00 

(Lowest)     Best  sample  Sweet  Corn,  L.  Marshall,    -     -  3.00 

Aggregate  amount  of  twelve  premiums,     -     -     -  §214  ^ 
An  ft-erage  of  Sl~-^^  each. 

*  The  oldest  town  io  the  L'nileil  SUtes. 


324 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 


WHAT     SLAVERY    DID. 

At  the  Rowan  County  Agricultural  Fair,  held  at  Mineral 
Springs,  in  North  Carolina,  on  the  13th  day  of  November, 
1856,  thirty  premiums,  ranging  from  twenty-five  cents  to 
two  dollars  each,  were  awarded  to  successful  competitors 
— the  aggregate  amount  of  said  premiums  being  $42,  or 
an  average  of  $1.40  each.  From  the  proceedings  of  the 
A  warding  Committee  we  make  the  following  extracts  : — 


Best  Horse  Colt, 

T.  A.  Burke,     - 

-     I^2.0C 

Best  Filly, 

James  Cowan,    - 

.     2.00 

Best  Brood  Mare, 

M.  W.  Goodman, 

-      2.00 

Best  Bull. 

J.  F.  McCorkle,- 

-    2.0C 

Best  Heifer, 

J.  F.  McCorkle, 

-      2.00 

Best  Cow, 

T.  A.  Burke,  - 

-    2.00 

Best  Stall-fed  Beef, 

S.  D.  Rankin,   - 

-      1.00 

Best  Sample  Wheat, 

M.  AY.  Goodman, 

-       50 

Best  lot  Beefs, 

J.  J.  Summerell, 

25 

Best  lot  Turnips. 

Thomas  Barber,  - 

-       25 

(Highest)  Best  pair  Match  Horses, 

,  R.  W.  Griffith,  - 

-      2.00 

(Lowest)  Best  lot  Cabbage, 

Thomas  Hyde,     - 

-       25 

Aggregate  amount  of  twelve  premiums. 
An  average  of  ^1.36  each. 


^16.25 


Besides  the  two  hundred  and  twenty  premiums,  amount- 
ing in  the  aggregate  to  $2,396,  freedom  granted  several 
diplomas  and  silver  medals  ;  besides  the  thirty  premiums 
amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $42,  slavery  granted  none 
— nothing.  While  examining  these  figures,  it  should  be 
recollected  that  agriculture  is  the  peculiar  province  of  the 
slave  States.  If  commerce  or  manufactures  had  been  the 
subject  of  the  fair,  the  result  might  have  shown  even  a 
greater  disproportion  in  favor  of  freedom,  and  yet  thero 


FREE    HGCRES    AXD    SLAVE.  325 

would  have  been  some  excuse  for  slavery,  for  it  makes  no 
pretensions  to  either  the  one  or  the  other  ;  but  as  agricul- 
ture was  tlie  subject,  slavery  can  have  no  excuse  what- 
ever, but  must  bear  all  the  sliame  of  its  niggardly  and  rc^ 
volting  impotence  ;  this  it  must  do  for  the  reason  that 
agriculture  is  its  special  and  almost  only  pursuit. 

The  Reports  of  the  Comptrollers  of  tlie  States  of  New 
York  md  North  Carolina,  for  the  year  1856,  are  now  be- 
fore U3.  From  each  report  we  have  gleaned  a  single  item, 
which,  when  compared,  the  one  with  the  other,  speaks 
volumes  in  favor  of  freedom  and  against  slavery.  We 
refer  to  the  average  value  per  acre  of  lands  in  the  two 
States  ;  let  slavocrats  read,  reflect,  and  repent. 

In  1856,  there  were  assessed  for  taxation  in  the 
State  of 

NEW    YORK, 

Acres  of  land    ....  30,080,000 

Valued  at  .  .  .  .  $1,112,183,136 

Average  value  per  acre  .  ,  S36.97 

In  1856,  there  were  assessed  for  taxation  in  the 
State  of 

NORTH   CAROUNA, 

Acres  of  land    ....  32,450.r)G0 

Valued  at  .                          .             .  $98,800,636 

Average  value  per  acre            .            .  $3.06 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  make  any  remarks  on  the  official 
facta  above.     Our  indignation  is  struck  almost  dumb  at 
this  astounding  and  revolting  display  of  the  awful  wreck 
that  slavery  is  leaving  behind  it  in  the  South.     "We  will 
however,  go  into  a  calculation  for  the  purpose  of  ascer 


526  FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 

taining  as  nearly  as  possible,  in  this  one  particular,  how 
much  North  Carolina  has  lost  by  the  retention  of  slavery. 
As  we  have  already  seen,  the  average  value  per  acre  of 
land  in  the  State  of  New  York  is  $36.97  ;  in  North  Caro- 
lina it  is  only  $3.06  ;  why  is  it  so  much  less,  or  even  any 
less,  in  the  latter  than  in  the  former  ?  The  answer  is, 
slavery.  In  soil,  in  climate,  in  minerals,  in  water-power 
for  manufactural  purposes,  and  in  area  of  territory,  North 
Carolina  has  the  advantage  of  New  York,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  slavery,  no  plausible  reason  can  possibly  be 
assigned  why  land  should  not  be  at  least  as  valuable  in  the 
valley  of  the  Yadkin  as  it  is  along  the  banks  of  the 
Genesee. 

The  difference  between  $36.97  and  $3.06  is  $33.91, 
which,  multiplied  by  the  whole  number  of  acres  of  land  in 
North  Carolina,  will  show,  in  this  one  particular,  the  enor- 
mous loss  that  Freedom  has  sustained  on  account  of  Slav- 
ery in  the  Old  North  State.     Thus  :— 

32,450,560  acres  a  $33,91 ....  $1,100,398,489. 

Let  it  be  indelibly  impressed  on  the  mind,  however, 
that  this  amount,  large  as  it  is,  is  only  a  moity  of  the 
sum  that  it  has  cost  to  maintain  slavery  in  North  Carolina. 
From  time  to  time,  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  have  left  the  State,  either  in  search  of  profitable, 
permanent  investment  abroad,  or  in  the  shape  of  profits  to 
Northern  merchants  and  manufactures,  who  have  b(  come 
the  moneyed  aristocracy  of  the  country  by  supplyiLg  to 
the  South  such  articles  of  necessity,  utility,  and  adorn- 
ment, as  would  have  been  produced  at  home  but  for  the 
pernicious  presonv'c  of  the  peculiar  institution. 


FREE    FIGURES   AND    SLAVE.  327 

A  reward  of  Eleven  Hundred  Millions  of  Dollars  .s  of- 
fered for  the  conversion  of  the  lands  of  North  Carolina 
into  free  soil.  The  lands  themselves,  desolate  and  impov- 
erished under  the  fatal  foot  of  slavery,  oflbr  the  reward. 
How,  then,  can  it  be  made  to  appear  that  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  North  Carolina,  and,  indeed,  throughout  all  the 
Southern  States — for  slavery  is  exceedingly  inimical  to 
them  all — is  not  demanded  by  every  consideration  of 
justice,  prudence,  and  good  sense?  In  1850,  the  total 
value  of  all  the  slaves  of  the  State,  at  the  rate  of  four  luin- 
dred  dollars  per  head,  amounted  to  less  than  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  millions  of  dollars.  Is  the  sum  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixteen  millions  of  dollars  more  desirable  than 
the  sum  of  eleven  hundred  millions  of  dollars?  AVhcn  a 
man  has  land  for  sale,  docs  he  reject  thirty-six  dollars  per 
acre  and  take  three  ?  Non-slaveholding  whites  I  look 
well  to  your  interests  I  Many  of  you  have  lands  ;  com- 
paratively speaking,  you  have  nothing  else.  Abolish  sla- 
very, and  you  will  enhance  the  value  of  every  leaguo, 
your  own  and  your  neighbors',  from  three  to  tliirty-six  dol- 
lars per  acre.  Your  little  tract  containing  two  hundred 
acres,  now  valued  at  the  pitiful  sum  of  only  six  hundred 
dollars,  will  then  be  worth  seven  thousand.  Your  chil- 
dren, now  deprived  of  even  the  meagre  advantages  of 
common  schools,  will  then  reap  the  benefits  of  a  collegiate 
education.  Your  rivers  and  smaller  streams,  now  wast- 
ing their  waters  in  idleness,  will  then  turn  the  wheels  of 
multitudinous  mills.  Your  bays  and  harbors,  now  un- 
known to  commerce,  will  then  swarm  with  ships  from 


328  FREE  FIGURES  A>'D  SLAVE. 

every  enlightened  quarter  of  the  globe.  .•5'on-slavehoid- 
ing  whites  1  look  well  to  your  interests  I 

Would  the  slaveholders  of  North  Carolina  lose  anything 
by  the  abolition  of  slavery  ?  Let  us  see.  According  to 
their  own  estimate,  their  slaves  are  worth,  in  round  num- 
bers, say,  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  dollars. 
There  are  in  the  State  twenty-eight  thousand  slaveholders, 
owning,  it  may  be  safely  assumed,  an  average  of  at  least 
five  hundred  acres  of  land  each — fourteen  millions  of  acres 
in  all.  This  number  of  acres,  multiplied  by  thirty-three  dol- 
lars and  ninety-one  cents,  the  difference  in  value  between 
free  soil  and  slave  soil,  makes  the  enormous  sum  of  four 
hundred  and  seventy-four  millions  of  dollars — showing 
that,  by  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  slaveholders  them- 
selves would  realize  a  net  profit  of  not  less  than  three 
hundred  and  fifty-four  millions  of  dollars  I 

Compensation  to  slaveholders  for  the  negroes  now  in  their 
possession  I  The  idea  is  preposterous.  The  suggestion  is 
criminal.  The  demand  is  unjust,  wicked,  monstrous,  damn- 
able. Shall  we  pat  the  bloodhounds  of  slavery  for  the  sake 
of  doing  them  a  favor  ?  Shall  we  fee  the  curs  of  slavery  in 
order  to  make  them  rich  at  our  expense  ?  Shall  we  pay  the 
whelps  of  slavery  for  the  privilege  of  converting  them  into 
decent,  honest,  upright  men  ?  No,  never  I  The  non-slavehol- 
ders expect  to  gain,  and  will  gain,  something  by  the  abolition 
of  slavery  ;  but  slaveholders  themselves  will,  by  far,  be  the 
greater  gainers  ;  for,  in  proportion  to  population,  they  own 
much  larger  and  more  fertile  tracts  of  land,  and  will,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  receive  the  lion's  share  of  the  increase 
in  the  va^ue  of  not  only  real  estate,  but  also  of  other  gen- 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SI^VE.  829 

nine  property,  of  which  they  arc  likewise  the  principal 
owners.  How  ridiculously  absurd,  therefore,  is  the  objec- 
tion, that,  if  we  liberate  the  slaves,  we  ruin  the  masters  I 
Not  long  since,  a  gentleman  in  Baltimore,  a  native  of  Ma/- 
ryland,  remarked  in  our  presence  that  he  was  an  aboli- 
tionist because  he  felt  that  it  was  right  and  proper  to  bo 
one  ;  "  but,"  inquired  he,  "  are  there  not,  in  some  of  the 
States,  many  widows  and  orphans  who  would  be  left 
in  destitute  circjimstances,  if  their  negroes  were  taken 
from  them  ?"  In  answer  to  the  question,  we  replied  that 
slavery  had  already  reduced  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  non-slaveholding  widows  and  orphans  to  the  low- 
est depths  of  poverty  and  ignorance,  and  that  w^e  did  not 
believe  one  slaveholding  widow  and  three  orphans  were 
of  more,  or  even  of  as  much  consequence  as  five  noi> 
slaveholding  widows  and  fifteen  orphans.  "  You  are 
right,"  exclaimed  the  gentleman,  "  I  had  not  viewed  tho 
subject  in  that  light  before  ;  I  perceive  you  go  in  for  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number."  Emancipate  the 
negroes,  and  the  ex-slaveholding  widow  would  still  retain 
her  lands  and  tenements,  which,  in  consequence  of  being 
surroundnd  by  the  magic  influences  of  liberty,  w^ould  soon 
render  l)or  far  more  wealthy  and  infinitely  more  respect- 
able, than  she  could  possibly  ever  become  while  trafficking 
in  human  flesh. 

The  fact  is,  every  slave  in  the  South  costs  the  State  in 
which  he  resides  at  least  three  times  as  much  as  he,  in  the 
whole  course  of  his  life,  is  worth  to  his  master.  Slavery 
benefits  no  one  but  its  immediate,  individual  owners,  and 
them  only  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  and  at  tlie  sacri- 


330  F]<EE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 

fice  of  the  dearest  rights  and  interests  of  the  whole  mass 
of  non-slaveholders,  white  and  black.  Even  the  masters 
themselves,  as  we  have  already  shown,  would  be  far  bet- 
ter ofif  without  it  than  with  it.  To  all  classes  of  society 
the  institution  is  a  curse  ;  an  especial  curse  is  it  to  those 
who  own  it  not.  Non-slaveholdin^  whites  !  look  well  to 
vour  interests  I 


I 


301OIERCIAL    CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE.  331 


CHAPTER   IX. 

COMMERCIAL  CITIES SOUTHERN  COMMERCE. 

Our  theme  is  a  city — a  great  Southern  importing",  ex- 
porting, and  manufacturing  city,  to  be  located  at  some 
point  or  port  on  the  coast  of  the  Carolinas,  Georgia  or  Vir- 
ginia, whore  we  can  carry  on  active  commerce,  buy,  sell, 
fabricate,  receive  the  profits  which  accrue  from  the  ex- 
change of  our  own  commodities,  open  facilities  for  direct 
communication  with  foreign  countries,  and  establish  ah 
those  collateral  sources  of  wealth,  utility,  and  adornment, 
which  are  the  usual  concomitants  of  a  metropolis,  and 
which  add  so  very  materially  to  the  interest  and  import- 
ance of  a  nation.  Without  a  city  of  this  kind,  the  South 
can  never  develop  her  commercial  resources  nor  attain  t(j 
that  eminent  position  to  which  those  vast  resources  would 
otherwise  exalt  her.  According  to  calculations  based  upor 
reasonable  estimates,  it  is  owing  to  the  lack  of  a  great 
commercial  city  in  the  South,  that  we  are  now  annually 
drained  of  more  than  One  Ilundred  and  Twenty  Millions 
of  Dollars  !  AVe  should,  however,  take  into  consideration 
the  negative  loss  as  well  as  the  positive.  Especially 
should  we  think  of  the  influx  of  emigrants,  of  the  visits  of 
strangers  and  cosmopolites,  of  the  patronage  to  hotels  and 


332  COMMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTHERN   C^DMMERCE. 

public  halls,  of  tlie  profits  of  travel  and  transportatioii,  of 
the  emoluments  of  foreign  and  domestic  trade,  and  of  nu« 
merous  other  advantages  which  have  their  origin  exclu- 
sively in  wealthy,  enterprising,  and  densely  populated 
cities. 

Nothing  is  more  evident  than  the  fact,  that  our  people 
have  never  entertained  a  proper  opinion  of  the  importance 
of  home  cities.  Blindly,  and  greatly  to  our  own  injury, 
we  have  contributed  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  towards 
the  erection  of  mammoth  cities  at  the  North,  while  our 
own  magnificent  bays  and  harbors  have  been  most  shame- 
fully disregarded  and  neglected.  Now,  instead  of  carry- 
ing all  our  money  to  New- York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and 
Cincinnati,  suppose  we  had  kept  it  on  the  south  side  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line — as  we  would  have  done,  had  it 
not  been  for  slavery — and  had  disbursed  it  in  the  upbuild- 
ing of  Norfolk,  Beaufort,  Charleston,  or  Savannah,  how 
much  richer,  better,  greater,  would  the  South  have  been 
to-day  I  How  much  larger  and  more  intelligent  would 
have  been  our  population.  How  many  hundred  thousand 
natives  of  the  South  would  now  be  thriving  at  home,  in- 
stead of  adding  to  the  wealth  and  political  power  of  other 
parts  of  the  Union.  How  much  greater  would  be  the  num- 
ber and  length  of  our  railroads,  canals,  turnpikes,  and  tel- 
egraphs. How  much  greater  would  be  the  extent  and 
diversity  of  our  manufactures.  How  much  greater  would 
be  the  grandeur,  and  how  much  larger  would  be  the  num- 
ber of  our  churches,  theatres,  schools,  colleges,  ly^cums, 
banks,  hotels,  stores,  and  private  dwellings.  How  many 
more  clippers  and  steamships  would  we  have  sailing  on 


COMMERCIAL   CITIES SOUTHERN    COMME.tCE.  333 

the  ocean,  liow  vastly  more  reputable  would  we  be  abroad, 
how  infinitely  more  respectable,  progressive,  and  happy, 
would  we  be  at  home. 

That  we  may  learn  something  of  the  importance  of 
cities  in  general,  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  great 
capitals  of  the  world.  What  would  England  be  without 
London  ?  What  would  France  be  without  Paris  ?  What 
would  Turkey  be  without  Constantinople  ?  Or,  to  come 
nearer  home,  what  would  Maryland  be  without  Baltimore  ? 
What  would  Louisiana  be  without  New  Orleans  ?  What 
would  South  Carolina  be  without  Charleston  ?  Do  we  ever 
think  of  these  countries  or  States  without  thinking  of  their 
cities  also  ?  If  we  want  to  learn  the  news  of  the  country, 
do  we  not  go  to  the  city,  or  to  the  city  papers  ?  Every 
metropolis  may  be  regarded  as  the  nucleus  or  epitome  of 
the  country  in  which  it  is  situated  ;  and  the  more  promi- 
nent features  and  characteristics  of  a  country,  particularly 
of  the  people  of  a  country,  are  almost  always  to  be  seen 
within  the  limits  of  its  capital  city.  Almost  invariably 
do  we  find  the  bulk  of  the  floating  funds,  the  best  talent, 
and  the  most  vigorous  energies  of  a  nation  concentra'^ed 
in  its  chief  cities  ;  and  does  not  this  concentration  of 
wealth,  energy,  and  talent,  conduce,  in  an  extraordinary 
degree,  to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  nation  ?  Un- 
questionably. Wealth  develops  wealth,  energy  develops 
energy,  talent  develops  talent.  What,  then,  must  be  the 
condition  of  those  countries  which  do  not  possess  the 
means  or  facilities  of  centralizing  their  material  forces, 
tlieir  energies,  and  their  talents  ?    Are  they  not  destined 


334  COMMERCIAL   CITIES —BUUTHERV     COMilERCi. 

to  occupy  an  inferior  rank  among  ;he  nations  .if  the 
earth  ?     Let  the  South  answer. 

And  now  let  us  ask,  and  we  would  put  the  question 
particularly  to  Southern  merchants,  what  do  we  so  much 
need  as  a  great  Southern  metropolis  ?  Merchants  of  the 
South,  slaveholders  I  you  are  the  avaricious  assassinators 
of  your  country  I  You  are  the  channels  through  which 
more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  dollars — 
$120,000,000 — are  annually  drained  from  the  South  and 
conveyed  to  the  North.  You  are  daily  engaged  in  the 
unmanly  and  unpatriotic  work  of  impoverishing  the  land 
of  your  birth.  You  are  constantly  enfeebling  our  resources 
and  rendering  us  more  and  more  tributary  to  distant  parts 
of  the  nation.  Your  conduct  is  reprehensible,  base,  crim- 
inal. 

Whether  Southern  merchants  ever  think  of  the  nume- 
rous ways  in  which  they  contribute  to  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  the  North,  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  enervate 
and  dishonor  the  South,  has,  for  many  years,  with  us,  been 
a  matter  of  more  than  ordinary  conjecture.  If,  as  it  would 
seem,  they  have  never  yet  thought  of  the  subject,  it  is 
certainly  desirable  that  they  should  exercise  their  minds 
upon  it  at  once.  Let  them  scrutinize  the  workings  of 
Southern  money  after  it  passes  north  of  Mason  and  Dix- 
ori's  line.  Let  them  consider  how  much  they  pay  to  North- 
ern railroads  and  hotels,  how  much  to  Northern  mer- 
chants and  shop-keepers,  how  much  to  Northern  shippers 
and  insurers,  how  much  to  Northern  theatres,  newspapers, 
and  periodicals.  Let  them  also  consider  what  disposition 
is  made  of  it  after  it  is  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  North. 


COMMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTHERX    COMMERCE.  335 

Is  not  the  greater  part  of  it  paid  out  to  Northern  manu 
facturers,  mechaiMCs,  and  laborers,  for  the  very  articles 
which  are  purchased  at  the  N  )rth — and  to  the  extent  that 
this  is  done,  are  not  Northern  manufacturers,  mechanics, 
and  laborers  directly  countenanced  and  encouraged,  while, 
at  the  same  time.  Southern  manufacturers,  mechanics, 
and  laborers,  arc  indirectly  abased,  depressed,  and  dis- 
abled ?  It  is,  however,  a  matter  of  impossibility,  on 
these  small  pages,  to  notice  or  enumerate  all  the  me- 
thods in  which  the  money  we  deposit  in  the  North 
is  made  to  operate  against  us  ;  suffice  it  to  say  that 
it  is  circulated  and  expended  there,  among  all  classes  of 
the  people,  to  the  injury  and  impoverishment  of  almost 
every  individual  in  the  South.  And  yet,  our  cousins  of 
tlie  North  are  not,  by  any  means,  blameworthy  for  availing 
themselves  of  the  advantages  which  we  have  voluntarily 
yielded  to  them.  They  have  shown  their  wisdom  in  grow- 
ing great  at  our  expense,  and  we  have  shown  our  folly  in 
allowing  them  to  do  so.  Southern  merchants,  slaveholders, 
and  slave-breeders,  should  be  the  objects  of  our  censure  ; 
they  have  desolated  and  impoverished  the  South  ;  they 
are  now  making  merchandize  of  the  vitals  of  their  coun- 
try ;  patriotism  is  a  word  nowhere  recorded  in  their  vo- 
cabulary ;  town,  city,  country — they  care  for  neither  ; 
with  them,  self  is  always  paramount  to  every  other  con- 
sideration. 

Having  already  compared  slavery  with  freedom  in  tlie 
States,  we  will  now  compare  it  with  freedom  in  the  cities. 
From  every  person  as  yet  unconvinced  of  the  despicable- 


336  COMMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

ness  of  slavery,  we  respectfully  ask  attention  to  the  fol- 
lowing letters,  which  fully  explain  themselves  : — 

Finance  Dkpartment  Comptroller's  Office,  ) 
New-York,  February  17th,  1857.  S 

H.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir: — 
Your  letter  to  Mayor  Wood  has  been  handed  to  me  for  au 
answer,  which  I  take  pleasure  in  giving  as  follows : 

The  last  assessment  of  property  in  this  city  was  made  in 
August,  1856. 

The  value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property  in  the  city,  ac- 
cording to  that  assessment,  is  ^511,740,492. 

A  census  of  the  city  was  taken  in  18^5,  and  the  number  of  in- 
habitants at  that  time  can  be  obtained  only  from  the  Secretary 
of  Sta<^^  Very  truly  yours, 

A.  S.  Cady. 


State  of  New-York,  Secretary's  Office,  > 
Albany,  February  24,  1857.  J 

H.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir : — 
Yours  of  the  17th  February,  in  regard  to  the  population  of  the 
city  of  New  York,  is  before  me.     According  to  the  census  of 

1855  the  population  was 029,810 

1850  "  "  " -     515,547 

1845  "  "  " 371,223 

1840  "  "  '* 312,710  T 

1835  '*  "  " 268,089  • 

1830  "  "  " 197,112 

As  to  the  population  now,  you  have  the  same  facilities  of  judg 
ing  that  we  have  from  the  above  table. 
Very  truly  yours, 

A.  N.  Wakefield,  Chief  Clerk, 


COMMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTHERN    TOMMERCE.  337 

Mayor's  Office,  City  IIai.l, 

Baltimore,  December  26,  185G. 
IT.  R.  IIelpkr,  Esq., 

Dfar  Sir  — 
His  Honor  the  Mayor  of  this  City  has  requested  me  to  reply 
to  your  communication  of  the  24th  inst..  addressed  to  him.  re- 
questing answers  to  certain  questions. 

In  answer  to  your  first  intenogatory,  I  would  state  that  the 
amount  of  direct  taxation  assessed  January  1st,  1850,  was 
^102,053.839  ;  the  amount  of  exempt  taxation  (i.  e.  property  out 
of  the  limits  of  direct  tax)  assessed  at  that  date  was  §0,054,733. 
In  reply  to  your  second  inquiry,  I  would  state  that  no  census 
of  the  city  has  been  taken  since  1850.  The  estimated  population 
at  this  time  is  about  250,000.    Respectfully  Your.s,  &c.,  &c., 

D.  H.  Blanciiard,  Secretary. 


Office  of  tue  Mayor  of  ths  City  of  Philadelphia,  > 

December  30,  1850.  ^ 

II.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir: 
In  reply  to  your  note  of  the  25th  inst.,  received  to-day,  I  has- 
ten to  give  you  the  estimates  you  ask. 

Real  Estate,  150  millions ;  it  is  about  one-half  the  real  value. 
Its  market  price  is  at  least  300  million  dollars. 

The  Personal  Estate  is  returned  at  20  millions ;  it  is  over  110 
millions.  There  has  been  no  census  since  1850.  The  population 
now  is  500,000.  Yours  truly, 

Q.Vaux. 


State  of  Louisiana,  Mayoralty  of  New  Orleans,  \ 
City  Hall,  3d  day  of  Jan'y,  1857.  $ 

Mr.  H.  R.  Helper, 

New-York : 

Dear  Sir : — 
In  answer  to  your  note  of  the  24th  December,  I  beg  to  refer 
you  to  the  enclosed  abstract  for  the  value  of  real  estate  and 
slaves  according  to  the  list  asseBsment. 

15 


338  COililERCIAL    CITIES S0UT.1ERN    COiniERCE. 

T'lere  has  heretofore  been  no  assessment  of  personal  prr-perty 
— there  having  been  no  t^x  authorized  until  this  year.  The  as- 
sessment is  now  being  made  and  will  probably  add  about  §5^000,- 
000  to  the  assessment  as  stated  in  the  abstract. 

There  has  been  nc  census  since  the  U.  S.  census  of  1850,  ex- 
cept an  informal  census,  made  in  1852,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing 
the  city  into  wards  anew. 

The  estimated  population  now  is  about  150  to  175.000  inhabi- 
tants— permanent  population — including  the  floating  population 
at  this  season,  it  would  probably  reach  not  less  than  210,000  in- 
habitants. The  U.  S.  census  was  taken  in  the  summer  months, 
and  is  very  incorrect  as  to  the  absolute  population  of  New  Or- 
leans. Very  respectfully, 

Your  obed't  serv't, 

J.  B.  Walton, 

Secretary. 

By  reference  to  the  abstract  of  which  Mr.  "Walton  speaks, 
we  find  that  the  value  of  real  and  personal  property  is 
summed  up  as  follows  : — 

Real  Estate,        -  -  -  ^67,460,115 

Slaves,         -  -  -  -  5,183,580 

Capital,  -  -  .  -  18,544,300 


Total       -  -  -        §91,188,195 


City  Hall,  Boston, 
Dec.  31,  1856. 

Dear  Sir: — Yours  of  the  25th  inst.,  addressed  to  the  Mayor, 
has  been  handed  to  me  for  a  reply — and  I  would  acconlingly 
s'^ate  that  the  value  of  real  and  personal  estate  in  this  city,  on 
the  first  day  of  May,  A.D.  1856,  was  ^249,162,500. 

The  census  of  the  city  of  Boston,  on  the  first  day  of  May,  A.D 
1855,  was  162,748  persons. 


COmiERClAL   CITIES — SOCTHERX    COMMERCE.  339 

Tlic  estimated  population  of  tlie  city  :f  Boston  at  this  date — 
say  January  1st,  li>57 — is  105,000. 

Yours,  very  respectfully, 

Saml.  T.  McCleary, 

City  Clerk. 


St.  Louis,      > 
Feb.  27,  1857.  \ 
n.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

New- York  : 

Dear  Sir : — 
In  reply  to  yours  of  the  9th  inst.,  I  beg  leave  to  state,  that  a 
census  of  our  population  was  taken  in  the  spring  of  1856  by  the 
Sheriff,  and  although  it  was  inaccurate,  yet  the  population  as  re- 
turned by  him  was  then  125,500.  That  his  census  is  too  low- 
there  is  no  doubt.  Our  population  at  this  time  is  at  least 
140.000. 

Our  last  assessment  was  made  in  February,  185G.     Value  of 
real  and  personal  estate,  is,  in  round  numbers,  §03.000,000. 

Trusting  this  information  will  be  sufScient  for  your  purpose, 
I  remain,  Y'ours,  &c., 

John  How, 

Mayor, 


Mayor's  Office.  City  IIall,  Brooklyn. 
January  2-lth,  1857. 
H.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

Sir:— 
The  an-swers  to  your  inquiries  are  as  follows : 
The  last  assessment  of  property  in  this  city  was  made  in 
August,  185G. 

The  value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property  in  the  city,  ao- 
cording  to  that  assessment,  is  895,800.440. 

A  census  of  the  city  was  taken  in  1855,  and  the  number  of  in- 
habitants, according  to  it,  was  205,250. 
The  estimated  population  now  is  225,000. 
The  last  annua    report  of  the  Comptroller,  together  with  a 


S40  COMMERCIAL   CITIES SOUTHERN   COMMERCS. 

communication  of  the  Mayor  to  the  Common  Council,  made  on 
the  5th  of  Jan..  1857,  have  been  transmitted  by  mail  to  your  ad- 
dress, and  from  them  you  may  be  able  to  obtain  any  further 
nformation  you  may  desire.    Yours,  respectfully, 

S.  S.  Powell, 

Mayor. 
By  C.  S.  Brainerd. 


Mayor's  Office,         > 
Charleston,  Feb.  16,  1857.  5 
II.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

(New  York,) 

Dear  Sir: — 
Yours  of  the  9th  has  just  been  received,  I  sent  you,  through 
the  Clerk  of  Council,  some  time  ago,  the  Annual  Fiscal  State- 
ment of  the  Committee  on  Accounts  made  to  the  City  Council, 
which  would  give  some  of  the  information  which  you  desire.  I 
will  have  another  copy  sent  you. 

No  census  has  been  taken  since  1848.  The  population  at  pre- 
sent must  be  between  fifty  and  sixty  thousand. 

Any  information  which  it  may  be  in  my  power  to  furnish  you 
with,  will  always  give  me  pleasure  to  supply. 

Very  respectfully, 

Wm.  Porcher  Miles, 

Mayor. 

From  a  report  of  the  "  Annual  accounts  of  the  city  of 
Charleston,  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  the  31st  of  August, 
1856,"  it  appears  that  the  total  value  of  real  and  personal 
property,  including  slaves — nearly  half  the  population — 
was  $36,127,751. 


Mayor's  Offick,  > 

Cincinnati,  Jan'y  2,  1857.  y 
Dear  Sit  : — In  reply  to  your  note  of  the  25th  ult.,  I  beg  leave 
to  say  that  the   -alue  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property  in 


roMMrr.riAi.  cirrns — soiTiirny  commerce.  341 

thU  city,  as  assessed  for  taxation,  amounts  to  .$^^8,810,734.  The 
realty  being  800,701,207;  the  personalty  $;20.79r),203,  and  tht 
bank  and  brokers'  capital  $17. 314.204.  The  assessment  of  the 
realty  was  made  in  1853  ;  that  of  the  personalty  is  made  \n 
March  of  each  year. 

Our  present  population  is  estimated  at  210,000.     No  complete 
census  has  been  taken  since  1850. 

The  total  of  taxes  levied  on  the  above  assessment  of  .^88,810, 
734,  for  city  purposes,  was  §529,727,05. 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  ob'dt.  scrv't, 
n.  R.  Helper,  Esq.,  Jas.  J.  Faran 

New- York.  Mayor. 


^Iayor's  Office, 
Louisville,  Ky.,  January  1st,  1857. 
II.  Pv.  Helper,  Esq., 

New-York  City, 

Deal'  Sir : — 
Your  favor  24th  ult.  is  received — contents  noted.  I  will  re- 
mark in  reply,  that  the  taxes  of  this  city  are  levied  only  on  real 
estate,  slaves,  and  merchandise,  (exclusive  of  home  manufac- 
tures.) which  are  taken  at  what  is  supposed  to  be  their  cash 
value,  but  is  much  less  than  the  real  value.  Our  last  assessment 
was  made  the  10th  January,  185G,  and  amounted  to  $31. 500,000. 
There  has  been  no  census  of  this  city  taken  since  1850,  our 
charter  requiring  that  it  shall  be  taken  this  year.  I  am  now  pre- 
paring to  have  it  done.  It  is  supposed  Louisville  at  this  time 
has  a  population  of  05  or  70  thousand. 

I  send  with  this  my  last  annual  message  to  the  Gen.  Council 
and  accompanying  documents. 

Respectfully  yours, 

JoH.N  Bakbee   Miyor. 


342  COMMERCIAL    CITIES — SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

Daily  Tribune  Office,  > 

Chicago,  May  21,  1857.  5 
II.  R.  Helper,  Esq. 

Sir:— 
In  the  ^lay  No.  of  Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine  you  will  find 
some  of  your  questions  answered.  The  actual  cash  value  of  pro- 
perty is  not  taken  by  the  assessors.  Citizens  are  not  sworn  as 
to  the  value  of  their  personal  effects,  nor  is  real  estate  given  in 
at  twenty  per  cent,  of  its  selling  cash  price.  An  elaborate  esti- 
mate of  the  real  value,  in  cash,  of  Chicago,  which  we  have  seen. 

puts  the  real  estate  at ^125,000.000 

Improvements  on  the  same,      -        -        -        -  !5;24,000,000 

Personal  property, $22,000,000 

In  1857  total  value,  -----         $171,000,000 

On  half  a  dozen  streets  in  this  city  lots  sell  readily  at  $1,000  to 
$1,200  per  foot  front,  exclusive  of  improvements. 

A  census  of  the  population  of  Chicago  was  taken  in  October, 
1853,  and  in  June,  1855,  the  latter  by  State  authority.  That  of 
October  '53  found  60,052 ;  that  of  June  '55  found  80,509.  The 
best  estimate  at  present  makes  the  number,  on  May  1st,  1857,  to 
be  112,000,  which  is  rather  under  than  over  the  truth.  The 
amount  of  building,  in  the  city,  is  immense,  but  as  quickly  as  a 
tenement  can  be  spiked  together,  it  is  taken  at  a  high  rent ;  and 
at  no  former  period  has  there  seemed  so  rapid  an  augmentation 
of  population.  Very  truly  yours, 

Ray  &  Mf:dill, 

Eds.  Ch.  Trih. 


Richmond,  Va. 

April  25th,  '57. 
H.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir : — 
Yours  of  the  14th  inst.  has  been  received  and  should  have  been 
answered  sooner,  but  it  was  impossible  tc  get  the  information 
you  desired  earlier.  The  value  of  the  real  estate  in  the  city  of 
Richmond  is  $18,000,000.  The  value  of  the  personal  is  $101,920. 
Total  value  $18,201,920.  This  does  not  include  slaves,  of  whom 
there  are  C,472  in  the  city.     The  State  values  each  slave  at  $300 


COiri[FR(  fAL    CITIES — SOlTnERN    COMMERCE.  343 

each— making  !j$  1.04 1.000.  which,  added  to  the  total  above,  makes 
^'20.14.').5'A).  The  numher  of  inhabitants — white  and  black,  is 
34,612  within  the  corporation  limits.  The  assessment  was  made 
in  li>55  throughout  the  whole  State. 

Yours,  very  respectfully, 

B.  "W.  Starke. 


Mayor's  Office,  > 

Providence,  Dec.  31st,  185G.  I 
11.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

New  York, 

Dear  Sir : — 
Yours  of  25th  is  this  moment  received.  You  will  receive  with 
this  a  connnunication  from  the  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Assess- 
ors, giving  the  requisite  information  from  that  department.  I 
Bend  you  this  day  a  census  report,  taken  1855.  which  will  give 
you  the  information  asked.  Our  population  at  this  time  is  be- 
tween 50  and  00,000.  Respectfully, 

Ja.mes  Y.  Smith, 

3Iayor. 


Assessor's  Office,        > 
Providence,  Dec.  31st,  185G.  J 
II.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir : — 
Ilis  Honor,  the  Mayor  of  this  City,  has  requested  me  to  answer 
your  communication  of  the  25th  inst.,  addressed  to  him,  so  far  as 
relates  to  the  valuation  of  this  city,  &c.,  which  is  hcrewi  h  pre- 
sented. 

The  valuation  of  this  Cit}-  in  1850  is  as  follows  : 

Real  Estate, ,'ji:;T,.487.11G 

Personal  Estate,     -        -        -        -  21.577.400 

Total,  S58,0G4,51G 

Our  last  assessment  was  ordered  in  June  last,  and  completed 
on  the  1st  day  oi' September  la'^t. 


344  COMMERCIAL    CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

Rates  of  taxation  $7  75  per  SIOOO. 
Amount  of  tax  raised  ^450,000. 

Kespectfally  yours, 

Joseph  Martin, 
Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Assessors. 


Herald  Office, 
Norfolk.  Ya.,  28th  April,  1857. 
II.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

New-York, 

Dear  Sir  .•^- 
The  value  of  all  the  real  estate,  as  re-assessed  about  two  months 
ago,  is  set  down,  say,  in  round  numbers,  at  five  and  a  half  mil- 
lions. The  actual  value  would  bring  it  somewhat  above  that 
mark.  The  assessment  of  the  personal  property  will  be  com- 
pleted in  three  or  four  weeks  hence  ;  but  its  ea:act  value  cannot 
be  arrived  at  from  the  fact  that  a  large  portion  of  this  descrip- 
tion of  property — including  slaves — is  taxed  specifically  without 
regard  to  its  value.  It  is  estimated  by  the  assessors,  however, 
that  the  personal  exceeds  the  real  estate,  and  may  be  safely  set 
down  at  six  and  a  half  millions. 

There  has  been  no  census  taken  since  1850.  The  State  autho- 
rities assume  the  population  to  be  IG.OOO,  but  I  am  informed  by 
the  assessors  that  17,000  is  a  fairer  estimate. 

Hoping  that  the  information  given  may  answer  the  purpose 
for  which  you  require  it,  I  am.         Respectfully  yours, 

R.  G.  Broughton. 


\ 


Mayor's  Office,        > 
Bufi"alo,  March  10,  1857.  5 
Dear  Sir: — Yours, of  the  9th  inst.,  was  received  this  morning. 
The  answers  to  your  questions  are  as  follows : 

The  last  valuation  of  the  property  of  our  ci  ty  was  made  in  April, 
18.56. 

Valuati  ^n  of  real  estate,      .        .        .  §r  8,1 14,040 
"  personal  estate,    .        .  7,300,436 

Total  real  and  personal,      $45,474,476 


CMIMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTIIERX    COMMERPE.  345 

The  last  census  was  the  State  census,  taken  in  the  summer  of 
1855.  That  showed  a  popuhition  of  74,'211  ;  a  fiiir  estimate  now 
is  90,000.  Kespectfull y. 

Your  ob't  serv't, 

F.  P.  Stevens. 


Mayor's  Office,  > 

Savannah,  9th  January,  1856.  ^ 
II.  R.  Helper,  Esq., 

New- York, 

Dear  Sir : — 
In  reply  to  your  first  interrogatory,  I  send  you  the  last  Mayor's 
report,  in  which  you  will  find  the  information  you  seek. 
No  census  has  been  taken  of  the  city  since  1850. 
The  estimated  population  is  25,000. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

J.  P.  SCREVEX, 

3Iayor. 

From  the  Ma3'oi-'s  annual  report,  we  learn  that  the  "  as- 
sessments or  value  of  lands  and  improvements,"  for  the 
year  ending  October  31st,  1856,  amounted  to  $8,999,015. 
The  value  of  the  personal  property  is,  perhaps,  about 
$3,000,000 — total  value  of  real  and  personal  estate 
$11,999,015. 


City  of  New-Bedford,  > 

Mayor's  Koom,  1  mo.,  0th,  1857.  5 
n.  K.  Helper:— 

Yours  of  the  4th  inst.  came  to  hand  this  morning. 
In  reply  to  your  inquiries,  I  will  say  that  the  amount  assessed 
on  the  1st  day  of  May,  1856,  was  as  follows  : — 

Real  Estate, .«j;9;31 1,500 

Personal, 17,735,500 

Total,  ^27.047,000 

15* 


346  COilMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTnERN    COMMERCE. 

The  returns  of  a  census  taken  the  previcus  autumn  gave  20,391 
persons,  from  which  there  is  not  probably  much  change. 

Respectfully, 

Geo.  Ho\vland,  Jr. 
3Iayor. 


Mayor's  Office,  > 

i7.  5 


Wilmington,  N.  C,  May  23d,  185/ 
H.  R  Helper,  Esq., 

New-York, 

Dear  Sir : — 
I  am  in  receipt  of  yours  of  19th  inst.     The  value  of  real  estate 
as  per  last  assessment,  1st  April,  1856,  was  $3,350,000 

We  have  no  system  by  which  to  arrive  at  the  value 
of  personal  property  :  I  estimate  the  amount,  however, 
exclusive  of  merchandize,  at  $4,509,000 

There  has  been  no  census  taken  since  1850 — the  present  num- 
ber of  inhabitants  is  estimated  at  10,000. 

I  regret  my  inability  to  afford  you  more  definite  information. 
Very  respectfullj^,  &c., 

0,  G.  Parsley, 

Mayor. 


COilMERClAL   CITIES — SODTHER.V    /OilMERCE. 


in 


From  the  foregoing  communications,  we  make  up  the 
following  summary  of  the  more  important  particulars  : — 


NIKE    FREE    CITIES. 


Naino. 

ropulation. 

Wealth. 

Wfaltli 
per  capita. 

New  York 

700,000 

500.000 

165,000 

225,000 

210,000 

112,000 

60,000 

90,000 

21,000 

2,083,000 

$511,740,492 

325,000,000 

219,162,500 

95,800,440 

88,810,734 

171,000,000 

58,064,516 

45,474,476 

27,047,000 

$1,572,100,158 

S731 

Philatk'Iphia 

Bo.sLon 

650 
1,510 
425 
422 
1,527 
967 
505 

Brooklyn 

Cincinnati 

Chicago 

Proviilcnce 

Buffalo 

New  Bedford 

1,288 

S754 

NINE    SLAVE    CITIES. 


Name. 

Population. 

Wealth. 

Wealth 
per  capita. 

Baltimore   

250,000 
175,000 
140,000 
60,000 
70,000 
40,000 
17,000 
25,000 
10,000 

787,000 

$102,053,839 
91,188,195 
63,000,000 
36,127,751 
31,500.000 
20,143,520 
12,000,000 
11,999,015 
7,850,000 

$375,862,320 

$408 

New  Orleans 

St.  Louis 

521 
450 

Charleston 

602 

Louisville 

Richmond 

450 
503 

Norfolk 

Savannah 

705 
480 

Wilmington 

785 

$477 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  slaves  tnemselves  are 
valued  at  so  much  per  head,  and  counted  as  part  of  the 
wealth  of  slave  cities  ;  and  yet,  though  we  assent,  as  wo 
have  done,  to  the  inclusion  of  all  this  fictitious  wealth,  it 
will  be  observed  that  the  residents  of  free  cities  are  far 
wealthier,  per  capilc^  than  the  residents  of  slave  cities. 
We  trust  the  reader  will  not  fa'i  to  examine  the  figures 
with  great  care 


348  COMMERCIAL    CITIES- -SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

In  this  age  of  the  world,  commerce  is  an  indispensable 
element  of  national  greatness.  Without  commerce  we 
can  have  no  great  cities,  and  without  great  cities  we  can 
have  no  reliable  tenure  of  distinct  nationality.  Commerce 
is  the  forerunner  of  wealth  and  population  ;  and  it  is 
mainly  these  that  make  invincible  the  power  of  undying 
States. 

Speaking  in  general  terms  of  the  commerce  of  this  coun- 
try, and  of  the  great  cities  through  which  that  commerce 
is  chiefly  carried  on,  the  Boston  Traveler  says  : — 

"  The  wealth  concentrated  at  the  great  commercial  points  of 
the  United  States  is  truly  astonishing.  For  instance,  one-eighth 
part  of  the  entire  property  of  this  country  is  owned  by  the  cities 
of  New-York  and  Boston.  Boston  alone,  in  its  corporate  limits, 
owns  one-twentieth  of  the  property  of  this  entire  Union,  being 
an  amount  equal  to  the  wealth  of  any  three  of  the  New-England 
States,  except  Massachusetts.  In  this  city  is  found  the  richest 
community,  per  capita^  of  any  in  the  United  States.  The  next 
city  in  point  of  wealth,  according  to  its  population,  is  Providence, 
(R.  I.j)  which  city  is  one  of  the  richest  in  the  Union,  having  a 
valuation  of  fifty-six  millions,  with  a  population  of  fifty  thousand." 

The  same  paper,  in  the  course  of  an  editorial  article  on 
the  ''Wealth  of  Boston  and  its  Business,"  says  : — 

"  The  assessors'  return  of  the  wealth  of  Boston  will  probably 
show  this  year  an  aggregate  property  of  nearly  three  hundred 
milhons.  This  sum,  divided  among  160,000  people,  would  give 
nearly  ^2,000  to  each  inhabitant,  and  will  show  Boston  to  be 
much  the  wealthiest  community  in  the  United  States,  save  New 
York  alone,  with  four  times  its  population.  The  value  of  the 
real  estate  in  this  city  is  increasing  now  with  great  rapidity,  as 
at  least  four  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  new  houses  and  stores 
will  be  built  this  year.     The  personal  estate  in  ships,  cargoes, 


COMMERCIAL   CITIES — SOITIIF-RN'    C03fMERCE.  349 

Stocks,  &c.,  is  grc'jitly  iirrcasing  with  each  succeeding  year,  not 
withstundiivj:  the  many  disasiers  and  h)sses  constantly  occurring 
in  sucli  kinds  of  property. 

"It  is  impossible  to  get  the  exact  earnings  of  tlie  nearly  sia 
hundred  thousand  tons  of  shipping  owned  in  this  city.  But  per- 
haps it  would  not  be  much  out  of  the  way  to  set  the  total  amount 
for  1855  at  from  fifteen  to  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  This  sum 
las  probabl}'  been  earned  by  our  fleet  engaged  in  the  domestic 
trade,  and  in  commercial  transactions  with  the  East  and  "VVesi 
Indies,  South  America,  the  Pacific.  Europe  and  Africa.  The  three 
sources  from  which  the  population  of  Boston  is  maintained,  and 
its  prosperity  continued,  are  these  :  Commerce,  trade,  and  manu- 
factures. Its  annual  trade  and  sales  of  merchandise  are  said  now, 
by  competent  judges,  to  amount  to  three  hundred  millions  of 
goods  per  annum,  and  will  soon  grcatlj-  exceed  that  vast  sura. 
The  annual  manufactures  of  this  city  are  much  more  in  amount 
than  in  many  entire  States  in  this  Union.  They  amount,  accord- 
ing to  recent  statistics,  to  nearly  seventy-five  millions  of  dollars.'^ 

Freeman  Ilimt,  the  accomplished  editor  of  Hn^iCs  Mer- 
chant^ Magazine,  writing  on  the  "Progressive  Growth  of 
Cities,"  says  : — 

•'  London  is  now  the  greatest  concentration  of  human  power 
the  world  has  ever  known.  Will  its  supremacy  be  permanent  ? 
or  will  it,  like  its  predecessors,  be  eclipsed  by  western  rivals  ? 
New-Yorkers  do  not  doubt,  and  indeed  have  no  reason  to  doubt, 
that  their  city,  now  numbering  little  more  than  one-third  of  the 
population  of  Ltmdon,  will,  within  the  next  fifty  years,  be  greati-r 
than  the  metropolis  of  the  British  empire. 

''New  York,  with  her  immediate  dependencies,  numbers  about 
900  000.  Since  1790  she  has  established  a  law  of  growth  whi(  h 
doubles  her  population  once  in  fifteen  years.  If  this  law  con- 
tinues to  operate,  she  may  be  expected  to  possess  1,800,000  in 
1871,3,000,000  in  1880,  and  7,200,000  in  1901.  If  twenty  years 
be  allowed  New  Y'ork  as  her  future  period  of  duplication,  she 
would  orertake  L'^ndon  b}-  the  end  of  fifty  vcars  ;  London  mar, 


350  COMMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTHERN   COMilERCE. 

then  huive  five  millions  j  New-York  will  almost  certainly  have 
more  than  that  number. 

Will  the  star  of  empire  become  stationary  at  New-York  ? 
The  interior  plain  of  North  America  has  within  itself  more  means 
to  sustain  a  dense  population  in  civilized  comfort  than  any  other 
region  of  the  world.  The  star  of  empire  cannot  be  arrested  in 
its  western  course  before  it  reaches  this  plain.  Its  most  promis- 
ing city  at  present  is  Chicago.  The  law  of  its  growth  since  1840 
seems  .o  be  a  duplication  within  four  years.  In  1840  it  num- 
bered 4,379.  In  June  of  this  year  it  will  contain  88,000.  At 
the  same  rate  of  increase  carried  forward,  it  would  overtake  New- 
York  within  twenty  years.  If  six  years  be  allowed  for  each 
future  duplication,  Chicago  would  overtake  New-York  in  thirty- 
three  years.  If  the  growth  of  Chicago  should  in  future  be  mea- 
sured by  a  duplication  of  every  seven  years,  it  would  contain 
5,622,000  in  forty -two  years. 

"  In  1901,  forty-five  years  from  this  time,  the  central  plain,  in- 
cluding the  Canadas,  will  contain  about  eighty  millions  of  peo- 
ple. Its  chief  city  may  be  reasonably  expected  to  contain  about 
one-tenth  of  this  population.  Before  the  end  of  this  century  the 
towns  and  cities  of  the  central  plain  will  contain,  with  their 
suburbs,  not  less  than  half  the  entire  population ;  that  is  to  say, 
forty  millions.  How  these  millions  shall  be  apportioned  among 
the  cities  of  that  day,  is  a  subject  for  curious  speculation." 

A   FLEET   OF  MERCHANTMEN. 

The  Boston  Journal^  of  a  late  date,  says  : — 

"  About  one  hundred  sail  of  vessels,  of  various  descriptions, 
entered  this  port  yesterday,  consisting  of  traders  from  Europe, 
South  America,  the  West  Indies,  and  from  coastwise  ports.  The 
waters  of  the  bay  and  harbor  presented  a  beautiful  appearance 
from  the  surrounding  shores,  as  this  fleet  of  white-winged  mes- 
sengers made  their  way  towards  the  city,  and  crowds  of  people 
must  have  witnessed  their  advent  with  great  delight.  A  more 
magnificent  sight  is  seldom  seen  in  our  harbor." 

Would  to  God  that  such  sifi^hts  could  sometimes  be  seen 


COMMERaAL  CITIES — SOUTHERN   COMMERCE.  351 

in  Southern  harbors  !  "When  slavery  shall  cease  to  para- 
lyse tlie  energies  of  our  people,  then  ships,  coming-  to  us 
from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  will,  with  majestic 
grandeur,  begin  to  loom  in  the  distance  ;  our  bays  will 
rejoice  in  the  presence  of  "the  white-winged  messengers," 
and  our  levees  resound  as  never  before  with  the  varied 
din  of  commerce. 

COMMERCE   OF   NORFOLK. 

The  Southern  Argus  thus  speaks  of  the  ruined  commerce 
of  a  most  despicable  niggerville  : — 

'•"NVe  question  if  any  other  community,  certainly  no  other  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  have  made  greater  exertions  to 
resuscitate  tlie  trade  of  Norfolk  tlian  the  mercantile  portion  of 
the  inhabitants;  in  proof  of  which  nineteen-twentieths  of  those 
engaged  in  foreign  commerce  have  terminated  in  their  insolvency, 
the  principal  cause  of  which  has  been  in  the  unrelenting  hostility, 
to  this  day,  from  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  of 
the  Virginia  Legislature,  with  the  co-operation  of  at  least  the 
commercial  portions  of  the  citizens  of  Richmond,  Petersburg  and 
Portsmouth." 

How  it  is,  in  this  enlightened  ago,  that  men  of  ordinary 
intelligence  can  be  so  far  led  into  error  as  to  suppose  that 
commerce,  or  any  other  noble  enterprise,  can  be  established 
and  successfully  prosecuted  under  the  dominion  of  slavery, 
is,  to  us,  one  of  the  most  inexplicable  of  mysteries.  "  Com- 
mercial" Conventions,  composed  of  the  self-titled  lordlings 
of  slavery — Generals,  Colonels,  Majors,  Captains,  ctcoatera 
— may  act  out  their  annual  programmes  of  farcical  non- 
sense from  now  until  doimsday  ;  but  they  will  never  add 
one  iota  to  the  materi»V   m  .'al,  or  mental  interests  of  the 


352  COMMERCIAL    CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

Soutn, — never  can,  until  their  ebony  idol  shall  have  been 
utterly  demolished. 

BALTIMORE PAST,    PRESENT,    AND    FUTURE. 

We  are  indebted  to  the  Baltimore  Patriot  for  the  follow- 
ing interesting  sketch  of  the  Monumental  City  as  it  was, 
and  as  it  is,  and  as  it  may  be  : — 

"The  population  of  Baltimore  in  1790  was  13.503;  in  1800, 
15,514;  in  1810,  35,583;  in  1820,  62,738;  in  1830,  80,625;  in 
1840,  110,313;  in  1850,  169,054.  The  increase  of  inhabitants 
within  two  particular  decades,  will  be  found,  by  reference  to  the 
above  table,  to  be  remarkable.  Between  1800  and  1810,  the 
population  nearly  doubled  itself;  between  1840  and  1850,  the 
increase  was  two-thirds  ;  and  for  the  past  five  years,  the  numer- 
ical extension  of  our  population  has  been  even  more  rapid  than 
during  the  previous  decade.  We  may  safely  assume  tha-t  Balti- 
more contains  at  the  present  time  not  less  than  250.000  inhabit- 
ants. But  the  increase  in  the  manufactured  products  of  the  State, 
as  shown  by  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  is  a 
matter  of  even  greater  astonishment.  The  statistical  tables  of 
1840  estimate  the  aggregate  value  of  the  manufactures  of  Mary- 
land at  ^13,509,636 — thirteen  millionjive  hundred  and  nine  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  thirty-six  dollars.  In  1850,  the  value  of 
the  articles  manufactured  within  the  limits  of  the  State  amounted 
to  ^32.593,635 — thirty-two  millionjive  hundred  and  ninety-three 
thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty  Jive  dollars  !  A  signal  proof 
that  the  wealth  of  the  State  has  increased  with  even  far  greater 
rapidity  than  its  population.  A  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  the 
sum  of  our  manufactures  did  not  much  exceed  five  millions  of 
dollars  per  annum.  At  this  day  it  may  be  set  down  as  falling 
but  little  short  of  fifty  millions.  These  are  facts  taken  from  ofii- 
cial  sources,  and  therefore  understated  rather  than  exceeded. 
They  are  easily  verified  by  any  one  who  will  take  the  necessary 
trouble  to  examine  the  reports  for  himself;  and  they  justify  us 
in  the  assertion  thi^,t  wc  are  but  fifteen  yea  ^  behind  Philadelphia 


COMMERCIAL    CITIES — SOUTHERN    COMMERCE.  353 

in  population,  and  arc  only  at  the  same  ivlativc  distance  from 
her  in  point  of  wealth. 

A  change  has  been  going  on  for  some  time  past  in  our  com- 
mercial and  industrial  affairs  which  all  may  have  noticed,  but  the 
extent  of  which  is  known  to  but  few,  and  we  hazard  nothing  in 
Baying  that  this  enormous  progression  must  continue,  because  it 
is  based  upon  a  solid  foundation,  and  therefore  subject  to  no  or- 
dinary contingencies. 

Occupying  geographically  the  most  central  position  on  this 
Continent,  with  vast  mines  of  coal  lying  within  easy  distance  to 
the  North  and  West  of  us,  with  a  harbor  easy  of  access,  and  with 
railroads  penetrating  by  the  shortest  routes  the  most  fertile  sec- 
lions  of  the  Union,  we  need  nothing  but  the  judicious  fostering 
of  a  proper  spirit  among  our  citizens  to  make  Baltimore  not  only 
the  commercial  emporium  of  the  South  and  West,  but  also  the 
great  coal  mart  of  the  Union.  Our  flour  market  is  already  tho 
most  extensive  in  the  known  world — we  speak  without  exagger- 
ation, for  this  also  is  proven  by  unquestionable  facts.  There  is 
more  guano  annually  brought  into  our  port  than  into  all  the  other 
ports  of  the  United  States  put  together,  and  the  demand  for  this 
important  article  of  commerce  is  steadily  increasing.  Our  ship- 
ments of  tobacco  are  immense,  and  as  the  improvement  in  the 
depth  of  the  channel  of  the  Patapsco  increases,  must  inevitably 
become  much  greater. 

Such,  then,  is  our  present  condition  as  a  commercial  commu- 
nity, and  when  we  add  that  our  prosperity  is  as  much  owing  to 
our  admirable  geographical  position  as  to  the  energy  of  our  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers,  we  design  to  cast  no  imputation  on 
these  excellent  citizens,  but  rather  to  stimulate  them  to  renewed 
efforts  in  a  field  where  enterprise  cannot  fail  of  reaping  its  due 
reward. 

Take  any  common  map  of  the  United  States  and  rule  an  air 
line  across  it  from  Baltimore  to  St.  Louis,  and  midwa}-  between 
the  two  it  will  strike  Cincinnati — the  great  inland  centre  of 
trade — traversing  at  the  same  time  those  wonderfully  fertile  val- 
leys which  lie  between  the  latter  point  and  the  ^lississippi  river. 
Now  let  it  be  remembered  that  since  the  introduction  of  rail- 
way 8  fluvial  naviga  '  ^n  has  been,  to  a  considerable  extent,  super- 


354  COMMERCIAL   CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

seded  by  inland  transport,  because  of  the  greater  speed  and  cer 
tainty  of  the  latter.  Let  it  be  remembered  also  that  the  migra- 
tion westward  is  incessantly  going  on,  and  that  with  every  farm 
opened  within  striking  distance  of  a  great  arterial  railway,  or  its 
anastomosing  branches,  a  certain  amount  of  freight  must  find  its 
way  to  the  seaboard  markets,  while  the  demand  for  manufactured 
products,  and  for  domestic  or  foreign  commodities,  in  exchange 
for  breadstuffs  or  raw  material,  must  necessarily  increase ; 
thereby  adding  greatly  to  the  prosperity  of  the  commercial  cen- 
tre towards  which  articles  of  export  tend,  and  from  which  im- 
ports in  return  are  drawn.  It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the 
value  of  what  this  trade  will  be  fifty  years  hence,  or  what  the 
population  of  Baltimore,  situated  as  she  is.  will  by  that  time 
have  become. 

Reasoning  from  causes  to  effects,  and  presuming  that  ordinary 
perseverance  will  be  used  in  promoting  the  interests  of  our  city, 
industrially  and  commercially,  we  are  justified  in  believing  that 
its  progress  must  be  in  an  accelerated  ratio,  and  that  there  are 
those  now  living  who  will  look  back  with  surprise  and  wonder 
at  its  growth  and  magnitude,  as  we  have  done  while  comparing 
its  present  aspect  with  that  which  it  exhibited  within  our  own 
memory." 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  but  one  not  at  all  surprising  to 
those  whose  philosophy  leads  them  to  think  aright,  that 
Baltimore  and  St.  Louis,  the  two  most  prosperous  cities  in 
the  slave  States,  have  fewer  slaves  in  proportion  to  the 
aggregate  population  than  any  other  city  or  cities  in  the 
South.  While  tbe  entire  population  of  the  former  is  now 
estimated  at  250  000,  and  that  of  the  latter  at  140,000— 
making  a  grand  total  of  390,000  in  the  two  cities,  less 
than  6,000  of  this  latter  number  are  slaves  ;  indeed,  neither 
city  is  cursed  with  half  the  number  of  6,000. 

In  1850,  there  were  only  2,946  slaves  in  Baltimore,  and 
2,656  in  St.  Louis — total  in  the  two  cities  6,602  ;  and  in 


COMMERCIAL    CITIES SOUTHERN'    COMMERCE.  355 

both  places,  tliank  Heaven,  this  heathenish  chiss  of  the 
population  was  ia})iilly  decreasing.  The  census  of  1800 
will,  in  all  probability,  show  that  the  two  cities  arc  en- 
tirely exempt  from  slaves  and  slavery  ;  and  that  of  1870 
will,  we  prayerfully  hope,  show  that  the  United  States  at 
large,  a*  that  time,  will  have  been  wholly  redeemed  from 
the  unspeakable  curse  of  human  bondage. 

What  about  Southern  Commerce  ?  Is  it  not  almost  en- 
tirely tributary  to  the  commerce  of  the  North  ?  Are  we 
not  dependent  on  New-York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and 
Cincinnati,  for  nearly  every  article  of  merchandise,  whe- 
ther foreign  or  domestic  ?  Where  arc  our  ships,  our  mari 
ners,  our  naval  architects  ?     Alas  I  echo  answers,  where  ? 

Reader  I  would  you  understand  how  abjectly  slave- 
holders themselves  are  enslaved  to  the  products  of  North- 
ern industry  ?  If  j^ou  would,  fix  your  mind  on  a  Southern 
"gentleman" — a  slave-breeder  and  human-flesh  monger, 
who  professes  to  be  a  Christian  !  Observe  the  routine  of 
his  daily  life.  See  him  rise  in  the  morning  from  a  North- 
ern bed,  and  clothe  himself  in  Northern  apparel  ;  see  him 
walk  across  the  floor  on  a  Northern  carpet,  and  perform 
his  ablutions  out  of  a  Northern  ewer  and  basin.  See  him 
uncover  a  box  of  Northern  powders,  and  cleanse  his  teeth 
with  a  Northern  brush  ;  see  him  reflecting  his  phj-siog- 
nomy  in  a  Northern  mirror,  and  arranging  his  hair  with  a 
Northern  comb  See  him  dosing  himself  with  the  mendi- 
caments  of  Northern  quacks,  and  perfuming  his  handker- 
chief with  Northern  cologne.  See  him  referring  to  the 
time  in  a  Northern  witch,  and  glancing  at  t/ie  news  in  a 
Northern   gazette.     See   him  and  his  family  sitting  in 


356  COMMEBCIAL   CITIES — SOUTHIR.V    COMMERCE. 

Northern  chairs,  and  singing  and  praying  out  of  Northern 
books.  See  him  at  the  breakfast  table,  saying  grace  over 
a  Northern  plate,  eating  with  Northern  cutlery,  and  drink- 
ing from  Northern  utensils.  See  him  charmed  with  the 
melody  of  a  Northern  piano,  or  musing  over  the  pages  of 
a  Northern  novel.  See  him  riding  to  his  neighbor's  in  a 
Northern  carriage,  or  furrowing  his  lands  with  a  North- 
ern plow.  See  him  lighting  his  segar  with  a  Northern 
match,  and  flogging  his  negroes  with  a  Northern  lash. 
See  him  with  Northern  pen  and  ink,  writing  letters  on 
Northern  paper,  and  sending  them  away  in  Northern  en- 
velopes, sealed  with  Northern  wax,  and  impressed  with  a 
Northern  stamp.  Perhaps  our  Southern  "  gentleman"  is 
a  merchant ;  if  so,  see  him  at  his  store,  making  an  unpa- 
triotic use  of  his  time  in  the  miserable  trafiSc  of  Northern 
gimcracks  and  haberdashery  ;  see  him  when  you  will, 
where  you  will,  he  is  ever  surrounded  with  the  industrial 
products  of  those  whom,  in  the  criminal  inconsistency  of 
his  heart,  he  execrates  as  enemies,  yet  treats  as  friends. 
His  labors,  his  talents,  his  influence,  are  all  for  the  North, 
and  not  for  the  South  ;  for  the  stability  of  slavery,  and 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  personal  aggrandizement,  he  is 
willing  to  sacrifice  the  dearest  interests  of  his  country. 

As  we  see  our  ruinous  system  of  commerce  exemplified 
in  the  family  of  our  Southern  ''  gentleman,"  so  we  may  see 
it  exemplified,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  in  almost  every 
other  family  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
slaveholding  States.  We  are  all  constantly  buying, 
and  selling,  and  wearing,  and  using  Northern  merchan- 
dise, at  a  dou)  e  expense  to  both  ourselves  and  our  neigh* 


COMMERCIAL   CITIES — SOUTHERN    COMMERCE.  357 

bors.  If  wc  but  look  at  ourselves  attentively,  we  sluill 
find  that  we  are  all  clothed  cap  a  pie  in  Is orihcrn  habilji- 
mente.  Our  hats,  our  caps,  our  cravats,  our  coats,  our 
vests,  our  pants,  our  gluvcs,  our  boots,  our  shoes,  our 
under-garments — all  come  from  the  North  ;  ^vhence,  too, 
Southern  ladies  procure  all  their  bonnets,  plumes,  and 
flowers  ;  dresses,  shawls,  and  scarfs  ;  frills,  ribbons,  and 
ruffles  ;  cufls,  capes,  and  collars. 

True  it  is  that  the  South  has  wonderful  powers  of  endu- 
rance and  recuperation  ;  but  she  cannot  forever  support  the 
reckless  prodigality  of  her  sons.  We  arc  all  spendthrifts  ; 
some  of  us  should  become  financiers.  We  must  learn  to 
take  care  of  our  money  ;  we  should  withhold  it  from  the 
North,  and  open  avenues  for  its  circulation  at  home.  We 
should  nut  run  to  New-York,  to  Philadelpliia,  to  Boston, 
to  Cincinnati,  or  to  any  other  Northern  city,  every  time 
we  want  a  shoe-string  or  a  bedstead,  a  fish-hook  or  a  hand- 
saw, a  tooth-pick  or  a  cotton-gin.  In  ease  and  luxury  we 
have  been  lolling  long  enough  ;  we  should  now  bestir 
ourselves,  and  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  age. 
Wc  must  expand  our  energies,  and  acquire  habits  of  enter- 
prise and  industry  ;  we  should  arouse  ourselves  from  the 
couch  of  lassitude,  and  inure  our  minds  to  thought  and 
our  bodies  to  action.  We  must  begin  to  feed  on  a  more 
substantial  diet  than  tliat  of  pro-slavery  politics  ;  we  should 
leave  off  our  siestas  and  post-meridian  naps,  and  employ 
our  time  in  profitable  vocations.  Before  us  there  is  a  vast 
work  to  be  accomplished — a  work  which  has  been  accu- 
mulating on  our  hands  for  many  years.  It  is  no  less  a 
Work  t^jan  that  of  infusing  the  spirit  of  liberty  into  all  our 


358  COMMERCIAL   CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

systems  of  commorce,  agriculture,  manufactures,  govern- 
ment, literature,  and  religion.  Oligarchal  despotism  must 
be  overthrown  ;  slavery  must  be  abolished. 

For  the  purpose  of  showing  how  absolutely  Southern 
"  gentlemen,"  particularly  slaveholding  merchants,  are 
lost  to  all  sense  of  true  honor  and  patriotism,  we  will 
here  introduce  an  extract  from  an  article  which  appeared 
more  than  three  years  ago  in  one  of  the  editorial  columns 
of  the  leading  daily  newspaper  of  the  city  of  New- York. 
It  is  in  these  words  : — 

'*'  Southern  merchants  do  indeed  keep  away  from  New-York 
for  the  reason  that  they  can't  pay  their  debts  ;  there  is  no  doubt 
that  if  the  jobbers  of  this  city  had  not  trusted  Southern  traders 
for  the  past  three  years,  they  would  be  a  great  deal  better 
off  than  they  are.  *  *  *  Already  our  trade  with  Canada  is  be- 
coming as  promising,  sure,  and  profitable,  as  our  trade  with  the 
South  is  uncertain,  riskful,  and  annoying." 

Now,  by  any  body  of  men  not  utterly  debased  by  tho 
influences  of  slavery,  this  language  would  have  been  con- 
strued into  an  invitation  to  stay  at  home.  But  do  South- 
ern merchants  stay  at  home  ?  Do  they  build  up  Southern 
commerce  ?  No  I  off  they  post  to  the  North  as  regularly 
as  the  seasons,  spring  and  fall,  come  round,  and  there, 
like  cringing  sycophants,  flatter,  beg,  and  scheme,  for 
favors  which  they  have  no  money  to  command. 

The  better  classes  of  merchants,  and  indeed  of  all  other 
people,  at  the  North,  as  elsewhere,  have  too  much  genuine 
respect  for  themselves  to  wish  to  have  any  dealings  what- 
ever with  those  who  make  me^phandise  of  human  beings. 
Li-uited  as  is  our  acquaintance  in  the  city  of  New-York, 


COMMERCIAL   CnTES — SOnnERN    COMMERCE.  359 

wc  know  one  firm  thero,  a  large  wliolosalo  liouso,  that 
makes  it  au  invariable  rule  never  to  sell  goods  to  a  m-i- 
chant  from  the  slave  States  except  for  cash.  Being  well 
acquainted  with  the  partners,  we  asked  one  of  them,  on 
one  occasion,  why  he  refused  to  trust  slave-driving  mer- 
chants. "  Because,"  said  he,  "  they  are  too  long-winded 
and  uncertain  ;  when  we  credit  them,  they  occasion  us 
more  loss  and  bother  than  their  trade  is  worth."  Non- 
slaveholders  of  the  South  I  recollect  that  slavery  is  the 
only  impediment  to  your  progress  and  prosperity,  that  it 
stands  diametrically  opposed  to  all  needful  reforms,  that 
it  seeks  to  sacrifice  you  entirely  for  the  benefit  of  others, 
and  that  it  is  the  one  great  and  only  cause  of  dishonor  to 
your  country.  Will  you  not  abolish  it  ?  May  Heaven 
help  you  to  do  your  duty  I 


860  FACTS   AND   ARGUMENTS   BY  THE   WAYSIDE. 


CHAPTER    X. 

FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    "WAYSIDE. 

Finding  that  we  shall  have  to  leave  unsaid  a  great  many 
things  which  we  intended  to  say,  and  that  we  shall  have 
to  omit  much  valuable  matter,  the  product  of  other  pens 
than  our  own,  but  which,  having  collected  at  considerable 
expense,  we  had  hoped  to  be  able  to  introduce,  we  have 
concluded  to  present,  under  the  above  heading,  only  a  few 
of  the  more  important  particulars. 

In  the  first  place,  we  will  give  an  explanation  of  the 
reason 

WHY   THIS    WORK   WAS    NOT   PUBLISHED   IN    BALTIMORE. 

A  considerable  portion  of  this  work  was  written  in  Bal- 
timore ;  and  the  whole  of  it  would  have  bocn  written  and 
published  there,  but  for  the  following  odious  clause,  which 
we  extract  from  the  Statutes  of  Maryland : — 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  Marj'land,  That 
after  the  passage  of  his  act,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  citi- 
zen of  this  State,  knowingl})^  to  make,  print  or  engrave,  or  aid  in 
the  making,  printing  or  engraving,  within  this  State,  any  picto- 
rial representation,  or  to  write  or  print,  or  to  aid  in  the  writing  or 
printing  any  pamphlet,  newspaper,  handbill  or  other  paper  of  an 
inflammatory  character,  and  having  a  tendency  to  excite  discon- 


FACTS    ANP    ARr.rMF.NTS    DY    THE    WATSIDK.  86l 

tcTit  or  5tip  up  insurrection  amongst  the  people  of  color  of  this 
State,  or  of  either  of  the  other  States  or  Territories  of  the  Unit- 
ed States,  or  knowingly  to  carry  or  send,  or  to  aid  in  the  carry- 
ing or  sending  tlie  same  for  circulation  amongst  the  inhabitants  of 
either  of  tl»e  otlier  States  or  Territories  of  the  United  States,  and 
any  person  so  offending  shall  be  giiiity  of  a  felony,  and  shall  on 
conviction  be  sentenced  to  confinement  in  the  penitentiary  of  this 
State,  for  a  period  not  less  than  ten  nor  more  than  twenty  years, 
from  the  time  of  sentence  pronounced  on  such  person," — Act 
passed  Dcc^  1831.     See  2nd  Dorseij,  page  1218, 

Now  so  long  as  slaveholders  are  clothed  with  the  man- 
tle of  oflScc,  so  long  will  they  continue  to  make  laws,  like 
the  above,  expressly  calculated  to  bring  tlie  non-slavehold- 
ing  whites  under  a  system  of  vassalage  little  less  onerous 
and  debasing  tlian  that  to  which  the  negroes  themselves 
are  accustomed.  What  wonder  is  it  that  there  is  no  na- 
tive literature  in  the  South  ?  The  South  can  never  have 
a  literature  of  her  own  until  after  slavery  shall  have  been 
abolished.  Slaveholders  are  too  lazy  and  ignorant  to  write 
it,  and  the  non-slaveholders — even  the  few  whose  minds 
are  cultivated  at  all — are  not  permitted  even  to  make  the 
attempt.  Down  with  the  oligarchy  1  Ineligibility  of  slave- 
holders— never  another  vote  to  th<*  trafificker  in  human 
flesh  I 

LEGISLATTV'E    ACTS    AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

In  his  Compendium  of  the  Seventh  Census,  Mr.  DeBow 
has  compiled  the  following  useful  and  highly  interesting 
facts  : — 

"The  Continental  Congress  of  1774  resolved  to  discontinue  the 
»Uve  trade,  in  w)  ich  resolution  they  were  anticipated  by  the  Con- 

16 


362  FACTS   AND   ARGUMENTS    BY   THE    WAfSIDE. 

ventions  of  Delegates  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  In  1789 
the  Convention  to  frame  the  federal  Constitution,  looked  to  the 
abolition  of  the  traffic  in  1808.  On  the  2nd  of  March,  1807,  Con- 
gress passed  an  act  against  importations  of  Africans  into  the 
United  States  after  January  1st,  1808.  An  act  in  Great  Britain 
in  1807  also  made  the  slave  trade  unlawful.  Denmark  forbid  the 
introduction  of  African  slaves  into  her  colonies  after  1804.  The 
Congress  of  Vienna,  in  1815,  pronounced  for  the  abolition  of  the 
trade.  France  abolished  it  in  1817,  and  also  Spain,  but  the  acts 
were  to  take  effect  after  1820.     Portugal  abolished  it  in  1818. 

"In  Pennsylvania  slavery  was  abolished  in  1780.  In  New 
Jersey  it  was  provisionally  abolished  in  1784  j  all  children  born 
of  a  slave  after  1804  are  made  free  in  1820.  In  Massachusetts, 
it  was  declared  after  the  revolution,  that  slavery  was  virtually 
abolished  by  their  Constitution,  (1780).  In  1784  and  1797,  Con- 
necticut provided  for  a  gradual  extinction  of  slavery.  In  Rhode 
Island,  after  1784,  no  person  could  be  born  a  slave.  The  Consti 
tutions  of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire,  respectively,  abolished 
slavery.  In  New  York  it  was  provisionally  abolished  in  1799, 
twenty -eight  years'  ownership  being  allowed  in  slaves  born  after 
that  date,  and  in  1817  it  was  enacted  that  slavery  was  not  to 
exist  after  ten  years,  or  1827.  The  ordinance  of  1787  forbid 
slavery  in  the  teiritory  northwest  of  the  Ohio." 

Besides  the  instances  enumerated  above^  slavery  has 
been  abolished  in  more  than  forty  different  parts  of  the 
world  within  the  last  half  century,  and  with  good  results 
everywhere,  except  two  or  three  West  India  islands, 
where  the  negro  population  was  greatly  in  excess  of  the 
whites  ;  and  even  in  these,  the  evils,  if  any,  that  have  fol- 
lowed, are  not  justly  attributable  to  abolition,  but  to  the 
previous  demoralization  produced  by  slavery. 

In  this  connection  we  may  very  properly  introduce  the 
testimony  of  a  West  India  planter  to  the  relative  advan- 
tages of  Free  over  Slave  Labor.     Listen  to  Charles  Petty 


FACTS    AKD    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    ^VAYSIDE.  ^C)^ 

John,  :f  Barbadocs,  who,  addressing  himself  to  a  citizen 
of  0111  own  country,  says  : — 

'•  In  1834,1  came  in  possession  of  257  slaves,  under  tlie  law? 
of  England,  which  required  the  owner  to  feed,  clothe,  and  furni>h 
them  with  medical  attendance.  With  this  number  I  cultivated 
my  sugar  plantation  until  the  Emancipation  Act  of  August  1st, 
1838,  when  they  all  became  free.  I  now  hire  a  port'.on  of  those 
slaves,  the  best  and  cheapest  of  course,  as  you  hire  men  in  tho 
United  States.  The  average  number  which  I  employ  is  100.  with 
which  I  cultivate  more  land  at  a  cheaper  rate,  and  make  more 
produce  than  I  did  with  257  slaves.  With  my  slaves  I  made  from 
100  to  180  tons  of  sugar  yearly.  With  100  free  negroes  I  think 
I  do  badly  if  I  do  not  annually  produce  250  tons. 

If,  in  the  forty  and  more  instances  to  which  we  have 
alluded,  the  abolition  of  slavery  had  proved  injurious  in 
a  majority  of  cases,  the  attempt  to  abolish  it  elsewhere 
might,  perhaps,  be  regarded  as  an  ill-advised  cflurt  ;  but, 
seeing  that  its  abolition  has  worked  well  in  at  least  four- 
teen-fifteenths  of  all  the  cases  on  record,  the  fact  becomes 
obvious  that  it  is  our  duty  and  our  interest  to  continue  to 
abolish  it  until  the  whole  world  shall  be  freed,  or  until  wo 
shall  begin  to  see  more  evil  than  good  result  from  our 
acts  of  emancipation. 

THE    TRUE    FRIENDS    OF    THE    SOt^-H. 

Frcesoilers  and  abolitionists  are  the  only  true  friends  of 
the  South  ;  slaveholders  and  slave-breeders  are  downright 
enemies  of  their  own  section.  Anti-slavery  men  are  work- 
ing for  the  Union  and  for  the  good  of  the  whole  world  ; 
proslavery  iien  are  working  for  the  disunion  of  the  States, 
and  for  the  cood  of  nothing  except  themselves.     Than 


864  FACTS   AND   ARGUMENTS    BY   THE   WAYSIDE. 

such  men  as  Greeley,  Seward,  Sumner,  Clay,  and  Birney, 
the  South  can  have  no  truer  friends — nor  can  slavery  have 
more  implacable  foes. 

For  the  purpose  of  showing  that  Horace  Greeley  is  not, 
as  he  is  generally  represented  by  the  oligarchy,  an  invete- 
rate hater  of  the  South,  we  will  here  introduce  an  extract 
from  one  of  his  editorial  articles  in  a  late  number  of  the 
New  York  Tribune — a  faithful  advocate  of  freedom,  whose 
circulation,  we  are  happy  to  say,  is  greater  than  the 
aggregate  circulation  of  more  than  twenty  of  the  principal 
proslavery  sheets  published  at  the  South  : — 

"  Is  it  in  vain  that  we  pile  fact  upon  fact,  proof  on  proof,  show- 
ing that  slavery  is  a  blight  and  a  curse  to  the  States  which  cher- 
ish it  ?  These  facts  are  multitudinous  as  the  leaves  of  the  forest  j 
conclusive  as  the  demonstrations  of  geometry.  Nobody  attempts 
to  refute  them,  but  the  champions  of  slavery  extension  seem  de- 
termined to  persist  in  ignoring  them.  Let  it  be  understood, 
then,  once  for  all,  that  we  do  not  hate  the  South,  war  on  the 
South,  nor  seek  to  ruin  the  South,  in  resisting  the  extension  of 
slavery.  "We  most  earnestly  believe  human  bondage  a  curse  to 
the  South,  and  to  all  whom  it  affects  ;  but  we  do  not  labor  for  its 
overthrow  otherwise  than  through  the  conviction  of  the  South  of 
its  injustice  and  mischief.  Its  extension  into  new  Territories  we 
determinedly  resist,  not  by  any  means  from  ill  will  to  the  South, 
but  under  the  impulse  of  good  will  to  all  mankind.  We  believe 
the  establishment  of  slavery  in  Kansas  or  any  other  "Western 
Territory  would  prolong  its  existence  in  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
by  widening  the  market  and  increasing  the  price  of  slaves,  and 
thereby  increasing  the  profits  of  slave-breeding,  and  the  conse- 
quent incitement  thereto.  Those  who  urge  that  slavery  would 
not  go  into  Kansas  if  permitted,  wilfully  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  it  has  gone  into  Missouri,  lying  in  exactly  the  same  lati- 
tude, and  is  now  strongest  in  that  north-western  angle  of  said 
Stale,  which  was  covertly  filched  from  what  is  now  Kansas 
within  tb    last  twenty  years.     Even  if  the  growth  of  hemp,  com 


FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE  365 

tnd  tobacco  were  not  so  profitable  in  Eastern  Kansas,  as  it  en- 
dcntly  must  be,  the  crowth  of  slaves  for  more  Southern  con- 
sumption would  inevitably  prove  as  lucrative  there  as  in  Virginia 
and  Maryland,  which  lie  in  corresponding  latitudes,  and  whose 
c^iief  staple  export  to-day  consists  of  negro  bondmen  destined  for 
the  plantations  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  which  could  be  sup- 
plied more  conveniently  and  cheaply  from  Kansas  than  from  their 
present  breeding-places  this  side  of  the  Alleghanies. 

Whenever  we  draw  a  parallel  between  Northern  and  Southern 
production,  industr}-,  thrift,  wealth,  the  iew  who  seek  to  parry 
the  facts  at  all  complain  that  the  instances  are  unfairly  selected — 
that  the  commercial  ascendancy  of  the  North,  with  the  profits 
and  facilities  thence  accruing,  accounts  for  the  striking  prepon- 
derance of  the  North.  In  vain  we  insist  that  slavery  is  the  cause 
of  this  very  commercial  ascendancy — that  Norfolk  and  Richmond 
and  Charleston  might  have  been  to  this  country  what  Boston, 
New-York  and  Philadelphia  now  are,  had  not  slavery  spread  its 
pall  over  and  paralyzed  the  energies  of  the  South." 

This  may  be  regarded  as  a  fair  expression  of  the  senti- 
ments of  a  great  majority  of  the  people  noi  th  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line.  Our  Northern  cousins  "  do  not  hate  the 
South,  war  on  the  South,  nor  seek  to  ruin  the  South  ;"  on 
the  contrary,  they  love  our  particular  part  of  the  nation, 
and,  like  dutiful,  sensible,  upright  men,  they  would  pro- 
mote its  interests  by  facilitating  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
Success  to  their  efforts  I 

SLAVERY   THOUGHTFUL SIGN'S    OF    CONTRmOX. 

The  real  condition  of  the  South  is  most  graphically  de- 
scribed in  the  following  doleful  admissions  from  the  Charles- 
ton Standard: — 

'•In  its  every  aspect  our  present  condition  is  provincial.  We 
bava  within  our  linits  no  solitary  metropolis  of  interest  or  ideas 


5G6  FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE. 

-no  marts  of  exchange— no  radiating  centres  of  opinion.  "What- 
ever we  have  of  genius  and  productive  eneij^}',  goes  freely  in  to 
swell  the  importance  of  the  North.  Possessing  the  material 
which  constitutes  two-thirds  of  the  commerce  of  the  whole  coun- 
try, it  might  have  been  supposed  that  we  could  have  influence 
upon  the  councils  of  foreign  States  ;  but  we  are  never  taken  into 
contemplation.  It  might  have  been  supposed  that  England, 
bound  to  us  by  the  cords  upon  which  depend  the  existence  of 
four  millions  of  her  su^^jects,  would  be  considerate  of  our  feel- 
ings ;  but  receiving  her  cotton  from  the  North,  it  is  for  them  she 
Las  concern,  and  it  is  her  interest  and  her  pleasure  to  reproach 
us.  It  might  have  been  supposed,  that,  producing  the  material 
which  is  sent  abroad,  to  us  would  come  the  articles  that  are  taken 
in  exchange  for  it ;  but  to  the  North  they  go  for  distribution,  and 
to  us  are  parcelled  out  the  fabrics  that  are  suited  to  so  remote  a 
section. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  New- York  being  tributary  to  Norfolk, 
Charleston,  Savannah  or  New  Orleans,  these  cities  are  tributary 
to  New-York.  Instead  of  the  merchants  of  New- York  standing 
cap  in  hand  to  the  merchants  of  Charleston,  the  merchants  of 
Charleston  stand  cap  in  hand  to  the  merchants  of  New-York. — 
Instead  of  receiving  foreign  ships  in  Southern  waters,  and  calling 
up  the  merchants  of  the  country  to  a  distribution  of  the  cargo, 
the  merchants  of  the  South  are  hurried  off  to  make  a  distribution 
elsewhere.  In  virtue  of  our  relations  to  a  greater  system,  we 
have  little  development  of  internal  interests ;  receiving  supplies 
from  the  great  centre,  we  have  made  little  effort  to  supply  our- 
Relves.  We  support  the  makers  of  boots,  shoes,  hats,  coats,  shirts, 
flannels,  blankets,  carpets,  chairs,  tables,  mantels,  mats,  carriages, 
jewelry,  cradles,  couches,  coffins,  by  the  thousand  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  ;  but  they  scorn  to  live  amongst  us.  They  must 
have  the  gaieties  and  splendors  of  a  great  metropolis,  and  are  not 
content  to  vegetate  upon  the  dim  verge  of  this  remote  frontier. 

As  it  is  in  material  interests,  so  it  is  in  arts  \nd  letters— our 
pictures  are  painted  at  the  North,  our  books  are  published  at  the 
North,  our  periodicals  and  papers  are  printed  at  the  North.  "We 
are  even  fed  on  police  reports  and  villany  from  the  North.  The 
papers  published  at   he  South  which  ignore  the  questions  at  issue 


FACTd    AND    ARCJUMEN'IS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE.  3G7 

Dctwecn  the  sections  are  generally  well  sustained  ;  the  books 
which  expose  the  evils  of  our  institution  are  even  read  with 
avidity  beyond  our  limits,  but  the  ideas  that  are  turned  to  the 
condition  of  the  South  are  intensely  provincial.  If  as  things  now 
are.  a  man  should  rise  with  all  the  geniusofShakspeare,  or  Dick- 
ens, or  Fielding,  or  of  all  the  three  combined,  and  speak  from  the 
South,  he  would  not  receive  enough  to  pay  the  costs  of  publica- 
tion. If  published  at  the  South,  his  book  would  never  be  seen 
or  heard  of,  and  published  at  the  North  it  would  not  be  read. — 
So  perfect  is  our  provincialism,  therefore,  that  enterprise  is  forced 
to  the  North  for  a  sphere — talent  for  a  market — genius  for  the 
ideas  upon  which  to  work — indolence  for  ease,  and  the  tourist  for 
attractions." 

This  extract  exhibits  in  bold  relief,  and  in  small  space, 
a  large  number  of  the  present  evils  of  past  errors.  It  is 
charmingly  frank  and  trutliful.  DcQuincey's  Confessions 
of  an  opium  eater  are  nothing  to  it.  A  distinguished  writer 
on  medical  jurisprudence  informs  us  that  "  the  knowledge 
of  the  disease  is  half  the  cure  ;"  and  if  it  be  true,  as  per- 
haps it  is,  we  think  the  Standard  is  in  a  fair  way  to  be 
reclaimed  from  the  enormous  vices  of  proslavery  statisoL 

PROGRESS  OF  FREEDOM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

"  Now,  by  St.  Paul,  the  work  goes  bravely  on." 

As  well  might  the  oligarchy  attempt  to  stay  the  flux 
and  reflux  of  the  tides,  as  to  attempt  to  stay  the  progress 
of  Freedom  in  the  South.  Approved  of  God,  the  edict  of 
the  genius  of  Universal  Emancipation  has  been  proclaimed 
to  the  world,  and  nothing,  save  Deity  himself,  can  possi- 
bly reverse  it.  To  connive  at  the  perpetuation  of  slavery 
is   to  disjbey  the  comraanda  of  Heaven.     Not  to  be  an 


368  FACTS    AND    ARGUIIENTS    liY    THE    WAYSIDE. 

abolitionist  is  to  be  a  wilful  and  diabolical  instrument  of 
the  devil.  The  South  needs  to  be  free,  the  South  wanta 
to  be  free,  the  South  shall  be  free  I 

The  following"  extracts  from  Southern  journals  will  show 
that  the  glorious  light  of  a  better  era  has  already  begun 
to  penetrate  and  dispel  the  portentous  clouds  of  slavery. 
The  Wellsburg  (Va.)  Herald,  an  independent  paper,  refer- 
ring to  the  vote  of  thirteen  Democrats  from  that  section, 
refusing,  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  in  1856,  "to  appro- 
priate money  from  the  general  treasury  for  the  recapture 
of  runaway  slaves,"  says  : — 

"  We  presume  these  delegates  in  some  degree  represent  their 
constituents,  and  we  are  thereby  encouraged  and  built  up  in  the 
confidence  that  there  arc  other  interests  in  Virginia  to  be  seen  to 
besides  those  pertaining  to  slavery." 

A  non-slaveholding  Southron,  in  the  course  of  a  commu- 
nication in  a  more  recent  number  of  the  same  journal, 
says  : — 

"  We  are  taxed  to  support  slavery.  The  clean  cash  goes  oui 
of  our  own  pockets  into  the  pockets  of  the  slaveholder,  and  this 
in  many  ways.  I  will  now  allude  to  but  two.  If  a  slave,  for 
crime,  is  put  to  death  or  transported,  the  owner  is  paid  for  him 
out  of  the  public  treasury,  and  under  this  law  thousands  are  paid 
out  every  year.  Again,  a  standing  army  is  kept  up  in  the  city  of 
Richmond  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  be  ready  to  quell  insur- 
rection among  the  slaves  ;  this  is  paid  for  out  of  the  public  trea- 
sury annually.  This  standing  army  is  called  the  public  guard, 
but  it  is  no  less  a  standing  army  always  kept  up.  We  will  quote 
from  the  acts  of  185G  the  expense  of  these  two  items  to  the  State, 
on  the  23d  and  24th  pages  of  the  acts : — '  To  pay  for  slaves  exe- 
cuted and  transported,  $22,000 ;'  'to  the  public  guard  at  Rich- 
mond, $24,000.'     This,  be  it  noticed,  is  only  for  one  year,  mak- 


FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE     VAYSIDE.  369 

ing  near  $50,000  for  these  two  objects  in  one  year;  lut  it  can 
be  shown  bj  the  present  unequal  plan  of  taxation  betwt-cn  slave 
property  and  other  propert}'.  that  this  is  but  a  small  item  of  our 
cash  pocketed  by  the  slaveholders;  and  yet  some  will  say  wo 
have  no  reason  to  complain." 

The  editor  of  the  Wheeling  Gazette  publishes  the  follow- 
ing  as  his  platform  on  the  slavery  question  : — 

*' Allying  ourself  to  neither  North  nor  South,  on  our  own  hook 
we  adopt  the  following  platform  as  our  platform  on  this  question, 
from  which  we  never  have  and  never  will  recede.     We  may  fall 

on  it, but   WILL  NEVER  LEAVE  IT. 

The  severance  of  the  General  Government  from  slavery. 

The  REPEAL  of  the  fugitive  slave  law. 

The  REPEAL  of  ihe  Kebi^aska  Kansas  Bill. 

Ko  more  slave  territories. 

The  purcuase  and  manumission  of  slaves  in  the  District 
OF  Columbia,  or  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  to 
free  territory." 

Says  the  Baltimore  Clipper: — 

'  The  South  is  contending  for,  and  the  North  against,  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery  into  the  territories  ;  but  we  do  not  think  that 
either  side  would  consent  to  dissolve  the  Union  about  the  negro 
population — a  population  which  we  look  upon  as  a  curse  to  the 
nation,  and  should  rejoice  to  see  removed  to  their  native  clime 
of  Africa." 

The  National  Era,  one  of  the  best  papers  in  the  country, 
published  in  Washington  City,  P.  C,  says  : — 

'•The  tendency  of  slavery  to  diffuse  itself,  and  to  crowd  out 
free  labor,  was  early  observed  by  American  patr'jts,  North  and 
South;  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  great  apostle  of  Republicanism, 
made  an  effort,  in  1784,  to  cut  short  the  encroaching  tide  of  bar- 
baric despotism,  liv  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territories  of 

IG* 


3 to  FACTS    AND   ARGUMENTS    BY   THE    WAYSIDE. 

the  Union,  dovrn  to  thirty-one  degrees  of  latitude,  which  was 
then  our  Southern  boundary.  His  beneficent  purpose  failed,  not 
for  want  of  a  decisive  majority  of  votes  present  in  the  Congress 
of  the  Confederation,  but  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of  the 
delegates  from  one  or  two  States,  which  were  necessary  to  tho 
constitutional  majority.  "When  the  subject  again  came  up,  in 
1787,  Mr.  Jefferson  w^as  Minister  to  France,  and  the  famous  ordi- 
nance of  that  year  was  adopted,  prohibiting  slavery  North  and 
West  of  the  Ohio  river.  Between  1784  and  1787,  the  strides  of 
slavery  westward,  into  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  had  become  too 
considerable  to  admit  of  the  policy  of  exclusion  ;  and  besides 
those  regions  were  then  integral  parts  of  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  and  of  course  they  could  not  be  touched  without  tho 
consent  of  those  States.  In  1820,  another  effort  was  made  to  ar- 
rest the  progress  of  slavery,  which  threatened  to  monopolize  the 
whole  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi.  In  the  meantime  the 
South  had  apostatized  from  the  faith  of  Jefferson.  It  had  ceased 
to  love  universal  liberty,  and  the  growing  importance  of  the  cot- 
ton culture  had  caused  the  people  to  look  with  indifference  upon 
the  moral  deformity  of  slavery  ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  poli- 
ticians became  its  apologists  and  defenders.  After  a  severe  strug- 
gle a  compromise  was  agreed  upon,  by  which  Missouri  was  to  be 
admitted  with  slavery,  vi  hich  was  the  immediate  point  in  contro- 
versy ;  and  slavery  was  to  be  excluded  from  all  the  territory 
North  and  West  of  that  State. 

"  We  have  shown,  from  the  most  incontestable  evidence,  that 
there  is  in  slave  society  a  much  greater  tendency  to  diffuse  itself 
into  new  regions,  than  belongs  to  freedom,  for  the  reason  that  it 
has  no  internal  vitality.  It  cannot  live  if  circumscribed,  and 
must,  like  a  consumptive,  be  continually  roving  for  a  change  of 
air  to  recuperate  its  wasting  energies." 

In  the  Missouri  Legislature,  in  January,  1857,  Mr.  Brown, 
of  St.  Louis,  proved  himself  a  hero,  a  patriot,  and  a  states- 
man, in  the  following  words  : — 

"  I  am  a  Free-Soiler  and  I  don't  deny  it.  No  word  cr  TOte  of 
mine  shall  ever  inure  to  the  benefit  of  such  a  monstrous  doctrine 


FACTS    IXD    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    W  kYSlDE.  371 

ft:>  the  extension  of  Slaver}^  over  the  patrimony  of  the  free  white 
laborers  of  the  country.  I  am  for  the  greatest  good  of  the 
greatest  number,  and  against  the  system  which  monopohzes  the 
free  and  fertile  territory  of  our  country  for  a  few  slavehoklers, 
to  the  exchision  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  sinewy  sons 
of  toih  The  time  will  come,  and  perhaps  very  soon,  when  the 
people  will  rule  for  their  own  benefit  and  not  for  that  of  a  class 
ichich,  numerically  speaking,  is  insignijicant.  I  stand  here  in 
the  midst  of  the  assembled  Legislature  of  Missouri  to  avow  my- 
self a  Free-Soiler.  Let  those  who  are  scared  at  nr.mes  shrink 
from  the  position  if  they  will.  I  shall  take  my  stand  in  favor  of 
the  white  man.  Here  in  Missouri  I  shall  support  the  rights,  the 
dignity  and  the  welfare  of  the  800,000  non-slaveholders  in  pre- 
ference to  upholding  and  perpetuating  the  dominancy  of  the 
oO.OUO  slaveholders  who  inhabit  our  State." 

T)ie  St.  Louis  Democrat,  in  an  editorial  article,  under 
date  of  January  28,  1S57,  entitled  itself  to  the  favorable 
rcprard  of  every  true  lover  of  liberty,  by  talking  thus  bold- 
ly on  the  subject  of  the  "  Emancipation  of  Slavery  in 
Missouri"  : — 

**  Viewing  the  question  as  a  subject  of  State  policy,  we  will  ven- 
ture to  say  that  it  is  the  grandest  ever  propounded  to  the  people. 
If  it  were  affirmed  in  a  constitutional  convention,  and  thoroughly 
carried  out  without  any  violation  of  vested  rights,  Missouri,  in  a 
few  years  subsequent  to  its  consummation,  would  be  the  fore- 
most State  on  the  American  continent.  Population  would  flow 
in  from  all  sides  were  the  barrier  of  negro  slavery  once  removed, 
and  in  place  of  80,000  slaves,  we  should  have  800,000  white  men, 
which,  in  addition  to  the  population  we  would  have  at  that  time, 
would  give  us  at  once  an  aggregate  of  two  millions. 

Is  Missouri  ambitious  of  political  power? — a  power  which  is 
clipping  away  from  the  South.  Tiie  mode  of  acquiring  it  is 
found.  "We  are  not  rash  enough  to  attempt  a  description  of  our 
condition  if  the  clement  of  free  labor  were  introduced.  The 
cartli  would  give  up  its  hidden  treasures  at  its  bidding  as  the  sea 


87 2  TACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAVSIDE. 

will  give  up  its  dead  ;  and  the  soil  would  bloom  more  luxui  antly 
than  if  it  drank  the  dews  of  Ilermon  nightly  ;  ten  thousand 
keels  would  Tex  our  rivers,  towns  along  their  banks  would  grow 
into  cities,  and  St.  Louis  would  soon  unite  in  itself  the  attributes 
of  the  greatest  commercial  manufacturing  and  literary  metropolis 
in  the  world.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  we  have  every  inani- 
mate element  of  wealth  and  power  within  our  limits,  and  that 
we  require  only  labor — free  labor — for  we  need  not  say  that  servile 
labor  is  inadequate.     *     *     * 

There  need  be  no  pernicious  agitation,  and  even  if  there 
should,  it  is  the  penalty  which  we  cannot  avoid  paying  at  some 
time ;  and  it  is  easier  to  pay  it  now.  than  in  the  future.  Who 
that  watches  passing  events  and  indications,  is  not  sensible  of 
the  fact  that  great  internal  convulsions  await  the  slave  States  ? 
Better  to  grapple  with  the  danger  in  time,  if  danger  there  be, 
and  avert  it,  than  wait  until  it  becomes  formidable.  One  thing 
is  certain,  or  history  is  no  guide :  that  is.  that  slavery  cannot  be 
perpetuated  anywhere.  An  agitation  now  would  be  the  effort 
of  the  social  system  to  throw  off  a  disease  which  had  not 
touched  its  vitals ;  hereafter  it  would  be  the  struggle  for  life 
with  a  mortal  sickness.  But  we  do  not  apprehend  any  agita- 
tion more  violent  than  has  been  forced  upon  us  for  3'ears  by  the 
pro-slavery  politicians.  Agitating  the  slavery  question,  has 
been  their  constant  business,  and  nothing  worse  has  resulted 
from  it  than  their  elevation  to  office — no  very  trifling  evil,  by 
the  way — and  the  temporary  subjugation  of  Kansas. 

Besides,  we  know  that  all  the  free  States  emancipated  their 
slaves,  and  England  and  France  theirs  suddenly ;  and  we  have 
yet  to  learn  that  a  dangerous  agitation  arose  in  any  instance." 

In  addition  to  all  this,  it  is  well  known,  and  we  thank 
Heaven  for  the  fact  and  for  the  indication,  that,  at  the 
election  held  for  Mayor  of  St.  Louis,  in  April,  1857,  the 
Abolition  candidate,  himself  a  native  of  Virginia,  was 
triumphantly  elevated  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  city. 
Three  cheers  for  St.  Louis  !  nine  for  Missouri  1  tliirt/^en 
for  the  S*  :th 


FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE.  373 

In  reference  to  the  late  election  in  St.  Louis,  in  which 
the  Emancipation  party  triumphed,  the  Wheeling  (Va.) 
Intelligencer  says  : — 

"  These  elections  do  demonstrate  this  fact,  beyond  a  cavil,  that 
the  sentiment  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people  of  tliis  Union 
is  irrevocably  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  ;  that  they  are 
determined,  if  overwhehning  public  sentiment  can  avail  anytiiing, 
another  slave  State  shall  not  be  admitted  into  the  confederacy. 
And  why  are  they  so  determined  ?  Because  they  believe,  and 
not  only  believe,  but  see  and  know,  that  slavery  is  an  unmiti- 
gated curse  to  the  soil  that  sustains  it.  They  know  this,  because 
they  see  every  free  State  outstripping  every  slave  State  in  all  the 
elements  that  make  a  people  powerful  and  prosperous  ;  because 
they  see  the  people  in  the  one  educated  and  thriftv,  and  in  the 
other  ignorant  and  thriftless  ;  because  they  have  before  their  eyes 
a  State  like  our  own,  once  the  very  Union  itself  almost  in  impor- 
tance, to-day  taking  her  rank  as  a  tifth  rate  power." 

Xon-slaveholders  of  the  South  !  fail  not  to  support  the 
papers — the  Southern  papers — that  support  your  interests. 
Chief  amongst  those  papers  are  the  St.  Louis  (Mo.)  Demo- 
crat^ the  National  Era,  published  in  Washington  City,  D. 
C,  the  Baltimore  Clipper,  the  Wheeling  (Ya.)  Intelligencer, 
and  the  Wellsburg  (Va.)  Herald. 

A    RIGHT    FEELING    IN    THE    RIGHT    QUARTER. 

There  is  but  one  way  for  the  oligarchy  to  perpetuate 
slavery  in  the  Southern  States,  and  that  is  by  perpetuating 
absolute  ignorance  among  the  non-slaveholding  whites. 
This  it  is  quite  impossible  for  them  to  do.  God  has  scat- 
tered the  seeds  of  knowledge  throughout  every  portion  of 
the  South,  and  they  are,  as  might  have  been  expected,  be- 
ginning to  take  roc    in  her  fertile  soil.     The  following  ex- 


374  FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY   THE    WAYSIDE. 

tracts  from  letters  which  have  been  received  since  we 
commenced  writing  this  work,  will  show  how  powerfully 
the  spirit  of  freedom  is  operating  upon  the  minds  of  intel- 
ligent, thinking  men  in  the  slave  States. 

A  Baltimorean,  writing  to  us  awhile  previous  to  the 
last  Presidential  election,  says  : — 

"  I  see  that  the  Trustees  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina 
have  dismissed  Prof.  Hedrick  for  writing  a  letter  in  favor  of  Re- 
publican principles.  Oh,  what  an  inglorious  source  of  reflection 
for  an  American  citizen !  To  think,  to  know  that  our  boasted 
liberty  of  speech  is  a  myth,  an  abstraction.  To  see  a  poor  pro- 
fessor crushed  under  the  feet  of  the  tyrannical  magnates  of  slavery, 
for  daring  to  speak  the  honest  sentiments  of  his  heart.  Where 
is  fanaticism  now,  North  or  South  ?  Oh,  my  country,  my  coun- 
try, whither  art  thou  tending  ?  Truly  we  have  fallen  upon 
degenerate  days.  God  grant  that  they  may  not  be  like  those 
of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  the  forerunners  of  oit  countrj-'s 
ruin." 

In  a  letter  under  date  of  November  1,  185G,  a  friend 
who  resides  in  the  eastern  part  of  North  Carolina, 
says  : — 

'•  In  the  papers  which  reached  me  last  week  I  notice  that  our 
own  State  has  been  disgraced  by  a  junto  of  pro-slavery  hot-spurs, 
who  had  the  audacity  to  meet  in  Raleigh  for  the  express  purpose 
of  concocting  measures  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  It  appears 
that  the  three  leading  spirits  of  this  cabal  were  the  present  gov- 
ernors of  three  neighboring  States — three  treasonable  disturbers 
of  the  public  peace,  who,  under  the  circumstances,  should,  in  my 
opinion,  have  been  shot  dead  upon  the  spot !  I  have  each  of 
their  names  noted  down  in  m}'^  memorandum,  and  I  shall  cer- 
tainly die  unsatisfied,  if  I  do  not  live  to  hear  of  their  being  tho- 
roughly tarred  and  feathered,  and  ridden  on  a  rail,  by  the  non- 
fllavchoUliiig  whites, 


TACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAISIDE.  875 

have  been  chiefly  leveled.  Rely  upon  it,  that,  if  they  do  not  soon 
sneak  away  into  their  graves,  a  day  of  retributive  justice  will 
most  assuredly  overtake  them." 

A  native  and  resident  of  one  of  the  towns  in  western 
North  Carolina,  under  date  of  March  19, 1857,  writes  to  us 
as  follows  : — 

"  While  patrolling  a  few  nights  ago  I  was  forcibly  struck  with 
the  truthfulness  of  the  remarks  contained  in  your  last  letter. — 
Here  I  am.  a  poor  but  sober  and  industrious  man.  with  a  family 
dependent  on  me  for  support,  and  after  I  have  finished  my  day's 
labor,  I  am  compelled  to  walk  the  streets  from  nine  in  the  even- 
ing till  three  in  the  morning,  to  restrain  the  roving  propensities 
of  other  people's  '  property ' — niggers.  Why  should  I  llms  be 
deprived  of  sleep  that  the  slaveholder  may  slumber  ?  I  frankly 
acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  you  for  opening  xuy  eyes  upon 
this  subject.  The  more  I  think  and  see  of  slavery  the  more  I  de- 
test it.  *  *  *  I  am  becoming  restless,  and  have  been  debat- 
ing within  my  own  mind  whether  I  had  not  better  emigrate  to  a 
free  State.  *  *  *  If  I  live,  I  am  determined  to  oppose  slavery 
somewhere — here  or  elsewhere.  It  will  be  impossible  for  me  to 
keep  my  lips  sealed  much  longer.  Indeed,  I  sometimes  feel  that 
I  have  been  remiss  in  my  dut}-  in  not  having  opened  them  ere 
now.  But  for  the  unfathomable  ignorance  that  pervades  the  mass 
of  the  poor,  deluded,  slavery- saddled  whites  around  me,  I  would 
not  suppress  my  sentiments  another  hour.-' 

Again,  under  date  of  April  7,  1857,  he  says  : — 

'•I  thank  God  that  slavery  will,  in  my  opinion,  soon  be  abol- 
ished. I  wish  to  Heaven  I  had  the  ability  to  raise  my  voice  suc- 
cessfully in  favor  of  a  just  system  to  abolish  it.  I  would  indeed 
be  rejoiced  to  have  an  opportunity  to  do  something  to  relieve 
the  South  of  the  awful  curse.  Fear  not  that  you  will  meet  with 
no  hympathizers  in  the  South.  You  will  have  hosts  of  friends  on 
every  side — even   in    this  town,  if  I  am  not  greatly  mistaken,  a 


3T6  FACTS  AND   ARGUMENTS   BY  THE   WAYSIDE. 

large  majority  of  the  citizens  will  add  an  enthusiastic  Amen  I  to 
your  work." 

"We  might  furnish  similar  extracts  from  other  letters, 
but  these,  we  think,  are  quite  sufficient  to  show  that  the 
millennium  of  freedom  is  rapidly  dawning  throughout  the 
benighted  regions  of  slavery.  Coveted  events  are  happen- 
ing in  charming  succession.  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  wait 
and  work  a  little  longer. 

THE    ILLITERATE    POOR    WHITES    OF    THE    SOUTH. 

Had  we  the  power  to  sketch  a  true  picture  of  life 
among  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South,  every  in- 
telligent man  who  has  a  spark  of  philanthropy  in  his  breast, 
and  who  should  happen  to  gaze  upon  the  picture,  would 
burn  with  unquenchable  indignation  at  that  system  of  Afri- 
can slavery  which  entails  unutterable  miseries  on  the  supe- 
rior race.  It  is  quite  impossible,  however,  to  describe  accu- 
rately the  deplorable  ignorance  and  squalid  poverty  of  the 
class  to  which  we  refer.  The  serfs  of  Russia  have  reason 
to  congratulate  themselves  that  they  are  neither  the 
negroes  nor  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South. 
Than  the  latter  there  can  be  no  people  in  Christendom 
more  unhappily  situated.  Below  will  be  found  a  few 
extracts  which  will  throw  some  light  on  the  subject  now 
under  consideration. 

Says  William  Gregg,  in  an  address  delivered  before  the 
South  Carolina  Institute,  in  1851 : — 

"  From  the  best  estimates  that  I  have  been  able  to  make,  I 
put  dowr  the  white  people  who  ought  to  work,  and  who  do  not, 


FACTS    AND    AKCrMKXTS    BY    Tllfc:     VAVSIPE.  37 T 

or  who  are  so  cniploved  as  to  be  wholly  unproductive  to  the 
State,  at  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand.  Any  man  wlio 
is  an  observer  of  things  could  hardly  pass  through  our  country, 
without  being  struck  with  the  fact  that  all  the  capital,  enter- 
prise, and  intelligence,  is  employed  in  directing  slave  labor;  and 
the  consei^uence  is,  that  a  large  portion  of  our  poor  white  peoj)le 
are  wholly  neglected,  and  are  sullored  to  while  away  an  exist- 
ence in  a  state  but  one  step  in  advance  of  the  Indian  of  the 
forest.  It  is  an  evil  of  vast  magnitude,  and  nothing  but  a  change 
in  public  sentiment  will  effect  its  cure.  These  people  must  be 
brought  into  daily  contact  with  the  rich  and  intelligent — they 
must  be  stimulated  to  mental  action,  and  taught  to  appreciate 
education  and  the  comforts  of  civilized  life  ;  and  this,  we  believe, 
may  be  effected  only  by  the  introduction  of  manufactures.  My 
experience  at  Graniteville  has  satisfied  me  that  unless  our  poor 
people  can  bo  brought  together  in  villages,  and  some  means  of 
employment  afforded  them,  it  will  be  an  utterly  hopeless  effort  to 
undertake  to  educate  them.  We  have  collected  at  that  place 
about  eight  hundred  people,  and  as  likely  looking  a  set  of  coun- 
try girls  as  may  be  found — industrious  and  orderly  people,  but 
deplorably  ignorant,  three-fourths  of  the  adults  not  being  able  to 
read  or  to  write  their  own  names. 

'•It  is  only  necessary  to  build  a  manufacturing  village  of 
shanties,  in  a  healthy  location,  in  any  part  of  the  State,  to  have 
crowds  of  these  people  around  you,  seeking  employment  at  half 
the  compensation  given  to  operatives  at  the  North.  It  is  indeed 
painful  to  be  brought  in  contact  with  such  ignorance  an  I  degra- 
dation." 

Again  he  asks  : — 

"  Shall  we  pass  unnoticed  the  thousands  of  poor,  ij^norant, 
degraded  white  poop!e  among  us,  who,  in  this  land  of  olenty, 
live  in  comparative  nakedness  and  starvation?  Many  a  one  is 
reared  in  proud  South  Carolina,  from  birih  to  manhood,  who 
has  never  passed  a  month  in  which  he  has  not,  some  part  of  the 
time,  been  stinted  for  meat.  Many  a  mother  is  there  who  will 
tell  you  that  her  children  are  but  scantily  provided  with  h»*<»ad, 


378  FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE 

and  much  more  scantily  with  meat ;  and,  if  they  be  c'.ad  with  com- 
fortable raiment,  it  is  at  the  expense  of  these  scanty  allowances 
of  food.  These  may  be  startHng  statements,  but  they  are  never- 
theless true  ;  and  if  not  believed  in  Charleston,  the  members  of 
our  legislature  who  have  traversed  the  State  in  electioneering 
campaigns  can  attest  the  truth." 

In  an  article  on  "  Manufactures  in  South  Carolina^''  pub- 
lished some  time  ago  in  DeBoxc's  Review,  J.  H.  Taylor,  of 
Charleston  (S.  C.)  says  ; — • 

"  There  is  in  some  quarters,  a  natural  jealousy  of  the  slightest 
innovation  upon  established  habits,  and  because  an  effort  has 
been  made  to  collect  the  poor  and  unemployed  white  population 
into  our  new  factories,  fears  have  arisen  that  some  evil  would 
grow  out  of  the  introduction  of  such  establishments  among 
us.  *  *  *  The  poor  man  has  a  vote  as  well  as  the  rich  man, 
and  in  our  State  the  number  of  the  former  will  largely  overbalance 
the  latter.  So  long  as  these  poor  but  industrious  people  can  see  no 
mode  of  living  except  by  a  degrading  operation  of  work  with  the 
negro  upon  the  plantation,  they  will  be  content  to  endure  life  in 
its  most  discouraging  forms,  satisfied  that  they  are  above  the 
slave,  though  faring  often  worse  than  he." 

Speaking  in  favor  of  manufactures,  the  Hon.  J.  H. 
Lumpkin,  of  Georgia,  said  in  1852  : — 

"  It  is  objected  that  these  manufacturing  establishments  will 
become  the  hot -beds  of  crime.  But  I  am  by  no  means  ready  to 
concede  that  our  poor,  degraded,  half-fed,  half-clothed,  and 
ignorant  population — without  Sabbath  Schools,  or  any  other 
kind  of  instruction,  mental  or  moral,  or  without  any  just  appre- 
ciation of  character — will  be  injured  by  giving  them  employment, 
which  will  bring  them  under  the  oversight  of  employers,  who 
will  inspire  them  with  sclf-.-espect  by  taking  an  interest  iu  theij 
welfare. ' 


FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE.  379 

In  a  paper  on  the  "  Extension  of  Cotton  and  Woo,  Fadch 
ries  at  the  South"  Mr.  Steadman,  of  Tennessee,  says  : — 

"  In  Lowell,  labor  is  paid  the  fair  compensation  of  80  cents  a 
day  for  men,  and  S-  a  week  fo-  women,  beside  board,  while  in 
Tennessee  the  average  compensation  for  labor  does  not  exceed  50 
cents  per  day  for  men,  and  §1.25  per  week  for  women." 

In  the  course  of  a  speech  "vvhich  he  delivered  in  Congress 
several  years  ago,  Mr.  T.  L.  Clingman,  of  North  Carolina, 
said  : — 

"Our  manufacturing  establishments  can  obtain  the  raw  mate- 
rial (cotton)  at  nearly  two  cents  on  the  pound  cheaper  than  the 
New-England  establishments.  Labor  is  likewise  one  hundred 
per  cent,  cheaper.  In  the  upper  parts  of  the  State,  the  labor  of 
either  a  free  man  or  a  slave,  including  board,  clothing,  &c.,  car 
be  obtained  for  from  SI  10  to  S120  per  annum.  It  will  cost  ac 
least  twice  that  sum  in  New-England.  The  difference  in  the  cost 
•of  female  labor,  whether  free  or  slave,  is  even  greater." 

The  Richmond  (Va.)  Dispatch  says  : — 

'•  We  will  only  suppose  that  the  ready-made  shoes  imported 
into  this  city  from  the  North,  and  sold  hero,  were  manufactured 
in  Richmond.  What  a  great  addition  it  would  be  to  the  means 
of  employment !  How  many  boys  and  females  would  find  the 
means  of  earning  their  bread,  who  are  now  suffering  fora  regular 
supply  of  the  necessaries  of  life." 

A  citizen  of  New-Orleans,  writing  in  DeBow^s  Reiieir^ 
says  : — 

"  At  present  the  sources  of  employment  open  to  females  (save 
in  menial  oflices)  are  very  limited  ;  and  an  inability  to  procure 
suitable  occupation  is  an  evil  much  to  be  deplored,  as  tending  in 
Its  consequeiiCL'S  to  produce  demoralization.  The  superior  grades 
of  female  laboi  may  be  considered  such  as  imply  a  uecessity  for 


S80  FACTS   AND    ARGIM-NTS    BY   THE   WAYSIDE 

education  on  the  part  of  the  employee,  while  the  menial  class  is 
generally  regarded  as  of  the  lowest  ;  and  in  a  slave  State,  this 
standard  is  '  in  the  lowest  depths,  a  lower  deep/  from  the  fact, 
that,  by  association,  it  is  a  reduction  of  the  white  servant  tc  the 
level  of  their  colored  fellow-menials." 

Black  slave  labor,  though  far  less  valuable,  is  almost 
invariably  better  paid  than  free  white  labor.  The  reason 
is  this  :  The  fiat  of  the  oligarchy  has  made  it  fashionable  to 
*'  have  negroes  around,"  and  there  are,  wo  are  grieved  to 
say,  many  non-slaveholding  whites,  (lickspittles,)  who,  in 
order  to  retain  on  their  premises  a  hired  slave  whom  they 
falsely  imagine  secures  to  them  not  only  the  appearance 
of  wealth,  but  also  a  position  of  high  social  standing  in 
the  community,  keep  themselves  in  a  perpetual  strait. 

Last  Spring  we  made  it  our  special  business  to  ascertain 
the  ruling  rates  of  wages  paid  for  labor,  free  and  slave,  in 
North  Carolina.  We  found  sober,  energetic  white  men, 
between  twenty  and  forty  years  of  age,  engaged  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits  at  a  salary  of  $84  per  annum — including 
board  only  ;  negro  men,  slaves,  who  performed  little  more 
than  half  the  amount  of  labor,  and  who  were  exceedingly 
sluggish,  awkward,  and  careless  in  all  their  movements, 
were  hired  out  on  adjoining  farms  at  an  average  of  about 
$115  per  annum,  including  board,  clothing,  and  medical 
attendance.  Free  white  men  and  slaves  were  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  North  Carolina  Railroad  Company  ;  the  former, 
whose  services,  in  our  opinion,  were  at  least  twice  as  val- 
uable as  the  services  of  the  latter,  received  only  $12  per 
month  each  ;  the  masters  of  the  latter  received  $16  per 
month  for  every  slave   so   employed.     Industrious,  tidy 


FACTS    AND   ARGUMENTS    BY    THE     VAY5IDE.  381 

white  girls,  from  sixteen  to  twenty  years  of  age,  had  mnch 
difllculty  in  hiring  themselves  ont  as  domestics  in  private 
families  for  $-10  per  annum — board  only  included  ;  negro 
weuchcs,  slaves,  of  corresponding  ages,  so  ungraceful, 
stupid  and  filtliy  that  no  decent  man  would  ever  permit 
one  of  them  to  cross  the  threshold  of  his  dwelling,  were  in 
brisk  demand  at  from  $G5  to  $70  per  annum,  including 
victuals,  clothes,  and  medical  attendance.  These  are  facts, 
and  in  considering  them,  the  students  of  political  and  so- 
cial economy  will  not  fail  to  arrive  at  conclusions  of  their 
own. 

Notwithstanding  the  greater  density  of  population  in 
the  free  States,  labor  of  every  kind  is,  on  an  average,  about 
one  hundred  per  cent,  higher  there  than  it  is  in  the  slave 
States.  This  is  another  important  fact,  and  one  that  every 
non-slaveholding  white  should  keep  registered  in  his  mind. 

Poverty,  ignorance,  and  superstition,  are  the  three  lead- 
ing characteristics  of  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the 
South.  Many  of  them  grow  up  to  the  age  of  maturity,  and 
pass  through  life  without  ever  owning  as  much  as  five 
dollars  at  any  one  time.  Thousands  of  them  die  at  an  ad- 
vanced age,  as  ignorant  of  the  common  alphabet  as  if  it 
had  never  been  invented.  All  are  more  or  less  impressed 
with  a  belief  in  witches,  ghosts,  and  supernatural  signs. 
Few  are  exempt  from  habits  of  sensuality  and  intemperance. 
None  have  anything  like  adequate  ideas  of  the  duties 
which  they  owe  either  to  their  God,  to  themselves,  or  to 
their  fellow-men.  Pitiable,  indeed,  in  the  fullest  sense  of 
the  term,  is  their  condition. 

It  is  the  almost  utter  lack  of  an  education  that  has  re- 


882  FACTS   AND   ARGUMENTS    BY   THE    WAYSIDE. 

duced  them  i  o  their  present  unenviable  situation.  In  the 
whole  South  there  is  scarcely  a  publication  of  any  kind 
devoted  to  their  interests.  They  are  now  completely  un- 
der the  domination  of  the  oligarchy,  and  it  is  madness  to 
suppose  that  they  will  ever  be  able  to  rise  to  a  position  of 
true  manhood,  until  after  the  slave  power  shall  have  been 
utterly  overthrown. 


SOUTHKRN    LITERATniE. 


383 


CHAPTER   XI, 


SOUinERN     LITERATURE. 


It  is  with  some  degree  of  hesitation  that  we  add  a  chap- 
ter on  Southern  Literature — not  that  the  theme  is  inap- 
propriate to  this  work  ;  still  less,  that  it  is  an  unfruitful 
one  ;  but  our  hesitation  results  from  our  conscious  inabil- 
ity, in  the  limited  time  and  space  at  our  command,  to  do 
the  subject  justice.  Few,  except  those  whose  experience 
has  taught  them,  have  any  adequate  idea  of  the  amount 
of  preparatory  labor  requisite  to  the  production  of  a  work 
into  which  the  statistical  element  largely  enters  ;  espe- 
cially is  this  80,  when  the  statistics  desired  are  not  readi- 
ly accessible  through  public  and  official  documents.  The 
author  who  honestly  aims  at  entire  accuracy  in  his  state- 
ments, may  find  himself  baffled  for  weeks  in  his  pursuit 
of  a  single  item  of  information,  not  of  much  importance  in 
itself  perhaps,  when  separately  considered,  but  necessary 
in  its  connection  with  others,  to  the  completion  of  a  har- 
monious whole.  Not  unfrequently,  during  the  preparation 
of  the  preceding  pages,  have  we  been  subjected  to  tliis 
delay  and  annoyance. 

The  following  brief  references  to  the  protracted  prepar- 
atory l.'il>()r8  and  inevitable  delays  to  whidi  authors  are 


384  SOUTHERN   LITERATTJRE. 

subjected,  may  interest  our  readers,  and  induce  thtm  to 
regard  with  charity  any  deficiencies,  either  in  detail  or  in 
general  arrangement,  which,  owing  to  the  necessary  haste 
of  preparation,  these  concluding  pages  of  our  work  may 
exhibit  : 

Goldsmith  was  engaged  nine  years  in  the  preparation 
of  "  The.  Traxdhr^''  and  five  years  in  gathering  and  arrang- 
ing the  incidents  of  his  ^^  Deserted  Village/^  and  two  years 
in  their  versification. 

Bancroft,  the  American  Historian,  has  been  more  than 
thirty  years  engaged  upon  his  History  of  the  United  States, 
from  his  projection  of  the  work  to  the  present  date  ;  and 
that  History  is  not  yet  completed. 

Hildreth,  a  no  less  eminent  historian,  from  the  time  he 
began  to  collect  materials  for  his  History  of  the  United 
States  to  the  date  of  its  completion,  devoted  no  less  tlian 
twent^'-five  years  to  the  work. 

"Webster,  our  great  lexicographer,  gave  thirty-five  years 
of  his  life  in  bringing  his  Unabridged  Dictionary  of  the 
English  Language  to  the  degree  of  accuracy  and  complete- 
ness in  which  we  now  find  it. 

Dr.  John  W.  Mason,  after  ten  years'  labor  in  the  accu- 
mulation of  materials  for  a  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
was  (jompelled  to  relinquish  the  work  on  account  of  im- 
paired health. 

Mr.  James  Banks,  of  Fayetteville,  North  Carolina,  who 
recently  delivered  a  lecture  upon  the  Life  and  Character  of 
Flora  McDona'd,  was  eighteen  years  in  the  collection  oJ 
his  materials. 


SOCTHERN    LITF.RATLKE.  385 

Oalibiclicff,  a  distinguished  Paissiun  author,  spent  twcnty- 
fivc  years  in  writing  the  Life  of  Mozart. 

Examples  of  this  kind  might  be  multiplied  to  an  almost 
indefinite  extent.  Indeed,  almost  all  the  poets,  prose- 
writers,  painters,  sculptors,  composers,  and  other  devotees 
of  Art,  who  have  won  undying  fame  for  themselves,  have 
done  so  through  long  3'cars  of  earnest  and  almost  unre- 
mitted toil. 

We  are  quite  conscious  that  the  fullness  and  accuracy 
of  statement  which  are  desirable  in  this  chapter  cannot  be 
attained  in  the  brief  time  allowed  us  for  its  completion  ; 
but,  though  much  will  necessarily  be  umitted  that  ought 
to  be  said,  we  shall  endeavor  to  make  no  statement  of 
facts  which  are  not  well  authenticated,  and  no  inferences 
from  the  same  which  are  not  logically  true.  We  can  only 
promise  to  do  the  best  in  our  power,  with  the  materials  at 
our  command,  to  exhibit  the  inevitable  influence  of  slavery 
upon  Southern  Literature,  and  to  demonstrate  that  the  ac- 
cursed institution  so  cherished  by  the  oligarchy,  is  no  less 
prejudicial  to  our  advancement  in  letters,  than  it  in  destruc- 
tive of  our  material  prosperity. 

What  is  the  actual  condition  of  Literature  at  the  South  ? 
Our  question  includes  more  than  simple  authorship  in  the 
various  departments  of  letters,  from  the  compilation  of  a 
primary  reader  to  the  production  of  a  Scientific  or  Theo- 
logical Treatise.  We  comprehend  in  it  all, the  activities 
engaged  in  the  creation,  publication,  and  siile  of  books 
and  periodicals,  from  the  penny  primer  to  the  heavy  folio, 
and  from   the  dingy,  coarse-typed  weekly  paper,  to  the 

large,  well-filled  daily. 

It 


388  SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 

It  were  uujust  to  deny  a  degree  of  iiitellcctua  .ictivity 
to  the  South.  It  has  produced  a  few  good  authors — a  few 
ccmpetent  editors,  and  a  moderately  large  number  of 
clever  magazlnists,  paragraphists,  essayists  and  critics 
Absolutely,  then,  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  South  has 
something  that  may  be  called  a  literature  ;  it  is  only  when 
we  speak  of  her  in  comparison  with  the  North,  that  we  say, 
with  a  pardonably  strong  expression,  "  The  South  has  no 
literature."  This  was  virtually  admitted  by  more  than  one 
speaker  at  the  late  "  Southern  Convention"  at  Savannah, 
Said  a  South  Carolina  orator  on  that  occasion  :  "  It  is  im- 
portant that  the  South  should  have  a  literature  of  her  ov/n, 
to  defend  her  principles  and  her  rights  ;"  a  sufficiently 
plain  concession  that  she  has  not,  now,  such  a  literature. 
"^Mi  facts  speak  more  significantly  than  the  rounded  periods 
of  Convention  orators.     Let  us  look  at  facts,  then. 

First,  turning  our  attention  to  the  periodical  literature 
of  the  South,  we  obtain  these  results  :  By  the  census  of 
1850,  we  ascertain  that  the  entire  number  of  periodicals, 
drdly,  semi-weekly,  weekly,  semi-monthly,  monthly  and 
qTiarterly,  published  in  the  slave  States,  including  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  were  seven  hundred  and  twenty-two. 
These  had  an  aggregate  yearly  circulation  of  ninety-two 
million  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  thousand  one  hundred 
and  twenty-nine.  (92,161,129).  The  number  of  periodicals, 
of  every  class,  published  in  the  non-slaveholding  States 
(exclusive  of  California)  was  on;  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  ninety-three,  with  an  aggregate  yearly  circulation  of 
three  hundred  and  thirty-three  million  three  hundred  and 
eighty-six  thousand  and  eighty-one.   (333,386,081). 


SOUTHERX    LITERATURE.  887 

We  are  awaio  that  there  may  be  inaccuracies  in  tnc  fure- 
goinij  estimates  ;  but  the  compilers  of  tlic  census,  not  we, 
;ire  responsible  for  them.  Besides,  the  figures  arc  unques- 
tionably as  fair  for  the  South  as  for  the  North  ;  we  accept 
them,  tlicrefore,  as  a  just  basis  of  our  comparisons.  Nearly 
seven  3'ears  have  elapsed  since  these  statistics  were  taj;en, 
and  these  seven  years  have  wrought  an  immense  change 
in  the  journalism  of  the  North,  without  any  corresponding 
change  in  that  of  the  South.  It  is  noteworthy  that,  as  a 
general  thing,  the  principal  journals  of  the  free  States  are 
more  comprehensive  in  their  scope,  more  complete  in  every 
department,  and  enlist,  if  not  a  higher  order  of  talent,  at 
least  more  talent,  than  they  did  seven  years  ago.  This  im- 
provement extends  not  only  to  the  metropolitan,  but  to  the 
country  papers  also.  In  fact,  the  very  highest  literary 
ability,  in  finance,  in  political  economy,  in  science,  in  sta- 
tism,  in  law,  in  theology,  in  medicine,  in  the  belles-lettres, 
is  laid  under  contribution  by  the  journals  of  the  non-slave- 
holding  States.  This  is  true  only  to  a  very  limited  degree 
of  Southern  journals.  Their  position,  with  but  few  excei> 
tions,  is  substantially  the  same  that  it  was  ten  years  ago. 
They  arc  neither  worse  nor  better — the  imbecility  and  in- 
ertia which  attaches  to  everything  which  slavery  touches, 
clings  to  them  now  as  tenaciously  as  it  did  when  Uenry 
A.  Wise  thanked  God  for  the  paucity  of  newspapers  in  the 
Old  Dominion,  and  the  platitudes  of  "  Father"  Kitchie  were 
recognized  as  the  political  gospel  of  the  Soutli.  Tiny  have 
not,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  increased  materially  in  immber, 
nor  in  the  aggregate  of  their  yearly  circulation.  In  the 
free  States  r.o  week  passes  that  docs  not  add  to  the  uum- 


38 8  SOUTHERN   LITERATUKE. 

bcr  of  their  journals,  and  extend  the  circle  of  their  readers 
and  their  influence.  Since  the  census  tables  to  Tvhich  we 
have  referred  were  prepared,  two  of  the  many  excellent 
weekly  journals  of  which  the  city  of  New-York  can  boast, 
have  sprung  into  being,  and  attained  an  aggregate  circu- 
lation more  than  twice  as  large  as  that  of  the  entire  news- 
paper press  of  Virginia  in  1850 — and  exceeding,  by  some 
thousands,  the  aggregate  circulation  of  the  two  hundred 
and  fifty  journals  of  which  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Kentucky, 
Georgia,  Xorth  Carolina  and  Florida,  could  boast  at  the 
time  above-mentioned. 

In  this  connection,  we  beg  leave  to  introduce  the  fol- 
luvring  letter,  kindly  furni^ed  us  by  the  proprietors  of 
the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  in  answer  to  enquiries  which  we  ad 
dressed  to  them  : — 

Tkibune  Office.  Xfw  York.  ( 
30th  May,  1857.       '  $ 
Mr.  H.  R.  Helper, 

Sir:— 
In  answer  to  your  inquiry  we  inform  you  that  we  employ  in 
our  building  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  persons  regularly : 
this  does  not  include  our  carriers  and  cartmen,  nor  does  it  include 
the  men  employed  in  the  Job  OflBce  in  our  building.  During 
the  past  year  we  have  used  in  printing  The  Tribune^  Forty-four 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventy  nine  (44,979)  reams  of  paper, 
weighing  two  million  three  hundred  and  ten  thousand  one 
hundred  and  thirty  (2.310.130)  pounds.  We  publish  one  hundred 
and  seventy-six  thousand  copies  of  our  weekly  edition,  which 
eoes  to  press,  the  second  form,  at  7  1-2  o'clo  ;k,  A.  M.  and  is 
finished  at  2  A.  M.  the  next  morning.  Our  mailers  require 
cighti^en  to  nineteen  hours  to  mail  our  Weekly,  which  makes 
from  thirty  to   hirty-two  cart  loads. 

Very  respectfully, 

Qreeley  &  McElrath. 


?orTii::u\  i.rrnKATrRF,.  389 

Throughout  the  iiou-slavchnKlini^  States,  the  uewspapci 
or  magazine  that  has  net  improved  during  the  last  deeado 
of  years,  is  an  exeei)tion  to  tlie  general  rule.  Throughout 
the  entire  slaveholding  States,  the  newspaper  or  maga- 
zine that  has  improved  during  that  time,  is  no  less  an 
exeeption  to  the  general  rule  that  there  obtains.  Outside 
of  the  larger  eities  of  the  South,  there  are  not,  probably, 
half  a  dozen  newspapers  in  the  whole  slaveholding  region 
that  can  safely  challenge  a  comparison  with  the  country- 
press  of  the  North.  What  that  country-press  was  twenty 
years  ago,  the  country-press  of  the  South  is  now. 

We  do  not  deny  that  the  South  has  produced  able  jour- 
nalists ;  and  that  some  of  the  newspapers  of  her  princi- 
pal cities  exhibit  a  degree  of  enterprise  and  talent  that  can- 
not fail  to  command  for  them  the  respect  of  all  intelligent 
men.  But  these  journals,  we  regret  to  say,  arc  marked 
exceptions  to  the  general  conditicm  of  the  Southern  press  ; 
and  even  the  best  of  these  fall  far  below  the  standard  of  ex- 
cellence attained  by  the  leading  journals  of  the  North.  In 
fact,  whether  our  comparison  embraces  quantity  only,  or 
extends  to  both  quantity  and  quality,  it  is  found  to  be 
immeasurably  in  favor  of  the  non-slaveholding  States, 
which  in  journalism,  as  in  all  other  industrial  pursuits, 
leave  their  slavery-cursed  competitors  at  an  infinite  dis- 
tance behind  them,  and  thus  vindicate  the  superiority  of 
free  institutions,  which,  recognizing  labor  as  honorable, 
secure  its  rewards  for  all.  « 

The  literary  vassalage  of  the  South  to  the  North  con- 
stitutes in  itself  a  most  significant  commentary  upon  tho 
diatribes  of  tho  former  concerning  "  a  purely  Southern 


oOO  SOUTHERN'    LITERATURE. 

literature."  To  be^iu  at  the  beginning — the  Alphabetical 
Blocks  and  Educational  tables  from  which  our  Southern 
abecedarian  takes  his  initial  lesson,  were  projected  and 
manufactured  in  the  North.  Going  forward  a  step,  we 
find  the  youngling  intent  in  spelling  short  sentences,  or 
gratifying  his  juvenile  fondness  for  the  fine  arts  by  copy- 
ing the  wood-cuts  from  his  Northern  primer.  Yet  another 
step,  and  we  discover  him  with  his  Sanders'  Reader,  his 
Mitchell's  Geography,  his  Emerson's  Arithmetic,  all  pro- 
duced by  Northern  mind  and  Northern  enterprise.  There 
is  nothing  wrong  in  this  ;  it  is  only  a  little  ridiculous  in 
view  of  the  fulminations  of  the  Southern  proslavery  press 
against  the  North.  Occasionally  however  we  are  amused 
by  the  efibrts  of  the  oligarchs  to  make  their  own  school- 
books,  or  to  root  out  of  all  educational  text-books  every 
reference  to  the  pestilential  heresy  of  freedom.  A  "  gen- 
tleman" in  Charleston,  S.  C.  is  devoting  his  energies  to 
the  preparation  of  a  series  of  pro-slavery  elementary  works, 
consisting  of  primers,  readers,  &c. — ^and  lo  1  they  are  all 
printed,  stitched  and  bound  north  of  J^^ason  and  Dixon's 
line  1  A  single /«c^  like  this  is  sufiScient  to  overturn  whole 
folios  of  theory  concerning  the  divinity  of  slavery.  The 
truth  is,  that,  not  school-books  alone,  but  works  of  almost 
every  class  produced  by  the.  South,  depend  upon  Northern 
enterprise  and  skill  for  their  introduction  to  the  public 
Mr.  DeBow,  the  eminent  Statistician,  publishes  a  Southern 
Reviow,  purporting  to  be  issued  from  New  Orleans.  It 
is  printed  and  bound  in  the  city  of  New  York.  We  clip 
the  following  paragraph  from  a  recent  number  of  tin? 
Vicksburgh  (Miss.)  Whig: — 


SOITIIF.RK    I.rrF.RATlRF:.  891 

"SoLTHEKX  ENTKRrRiZE. — Evcii  tlio  Mississippi  Legislature, 
at  its  late  session  allowed  its  laws  to  go  to  Boston  to  be  printed, 
and  made  an  appropriation  of  S'5,000  to  pay  one  of  its  members 
to  go  there  and  read  the  proof  sheets  instead  of  having  it  done 
in  the  State,  and  thereby  assisting  in  building  np  a  J>out!  em 
publishing  house.     AVhat  a  commentary  on  the  Yankee-haters  !" 

The  Greensboro  (N.  0.)  Patriot  thus  records  a  similar 
contribution,  on  the  part  of  that  State,  to  "  the  creation  of 
a  purely  Southern  Literature  y 

"  We  have  heard  it  said,  that  those  who  had  the  control 
of  the  printing  of  the  revised  Statutes  of  North  Carolina,  in 
order  to  save  a  few  dimes,  had  the  work  executed  in  Boston,  in 
preference  to  giving  the  job  to  a  citizen  of  this  State.  AVe 
impugn  not  the  motives  of  the  agents  in  this  matter  ;  but  it  is  a 
little  humiliating  that  no  work  except  the  commonest  labor,  can 
be  done  in  North  Carolina  ;  that  everything  which  requires  a  little 
skill,  capital,  or  ingenuity,  must  be  sent  North.  In  the  case  under 
consideration,  we  have  heard  it  remarked,  that  wlien  tlie  whole 
bill  of  expenses  connected  with  the  printing  of  the  Revised 
SUitutes  in  Boston  was  footed  up,  it  only  amounted  to  a  few 
thousand  dollars  more  than  the  job  would  have  cost  in  this 
State.  But  then  we  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that 
the  book  came  from  the  North,  and  that  it  was  printed  among 
the  abolitiojiists  of  Boston  ;  the  peculiar  friends  of  North  Carolina 
and  the  South  generally. — Of  course  we  ought  to  be  willing  to 
pay  a  few  extra  thousands  in  consideration  of  these  important 
facts  !" 

Southern  divines  give  us  elaborate  "  Bible  Arg'uincnts  ;" 
Southern  statists  heap  treatise  upon  treatise  through 
which  tlie  Federal  Constitution  is  tortured  into  all,  mon- 
strous shapes ;  Southern  novelists  bore  us  ad  infinilum 
with  pictures  of  the  beatitudes  of  plantation  life  and  the 
negro-quarters  ;  Southern  verse- wrights  drone  out  their 


392  SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 

di'owsy  dactyls  or  grow  ventricous  with  their  turgid  heroics 
all  in  defence  of  slavery, — priest,  politician,  novelist,  bard- 
ling,  severally  ringing  the  changes  upon  "  the  Biblical 
institution,"  "  the  conservative  institution,"  ''  the  human- 
izing institution,"  "  the  patriarchal  institution" — and 
then — have  their  books  printed  on  Northern  paper,  with 
Northern  types,  by  Northern  artizans,  stitched,  bound  and 
made  ready  for  the  market  by  Northern  industry  ;  and 
yet  fail  to  see  in  all  this,  as  a  true  philosophical  mind 
must  see,  an  overwhelming  refutation  of  their  miserable 
sophisms  in  behalf  of  a  system  against  which  humanity 
in  all  its  impulses  and  aspirations,  and  civilization  in  all 
its  activities  and  triumphs,  utter  their  perpetual  protest. 
From  a  curious  article  in  the  "American  Publishers 
Circular"  on  "  Book  Making  in  America,"  we  give  the  fol 
lowing  extracts  : 

"  It  is  somewhat  alarming  to  know  that  the  number  of  houses 
now  actually  engaged  in  the  publishing  of  books,  not  including 
periodicals,  amounts  to  more  than  three  hundred.  About  three- 
fourths  of  these  arc  engaged  in  Boston,  New-York,  Philadelphia, 
and  Baltimore — the  balance  being  divided  between  Cincinnati, 
Buffalo,  Auburn,  Albany,  Louisville,  Chicago.  St.  Louis,  and  a 
few  other  places.  There  are  more  than  three  thousand  book- 
sellers who  dispense  the  publications  of  these  three  hundred,  be- 
sides six  or  seven  thousand  apothecaries,  grocers,  and  hardware 
dealers,  who  connect  literature  with  drugs,  molasses,  and  nails. 

•'The  best  printing  in  America  is  probably  now  done  in  Cam- 
bridge ;  the  best  cloth  binding  in  Boston,  and  the  best  calf  and 
morocco  in  New-York  and  Philadelphia.  In  these  two  latter 
styles  we  are,  as  yet,  a  long  distance  from  Ileyda}-,  the  pride  of 
London.  Ilis  finish  is  supreme.  There  is  nothing  between  it 
and  perfection. 

"  Books  have  miriti^lied  to  such  an  extent  in  our  country,  that 


sorrnERV  i.iTF.nATrnE.  593 

it  now  takes  750  paper  mills,  with  '2.000  en2:incs  in  ronsrant 
operation,  to  snpply  tlie  printers,  who  work  day  ami  night,  en- 
deavoring; to  keep  tlieir  engajrenients  with  ])nblishers.  'riuso 
tireless  mills  produced  270.000.000  pounds  of  paper  the  past  year, 
which  hnmcnsc  suppl}'  has  sold  for  about  ^27,000,000.  A  pound 
and  a  quarter  of  rags  were  required  for  a  pound  of  paper,  and 
400,000.000  pounds  were  therefore  consumed  in  this  way  last 
year.  The  cost  of  manufacturing  a  twelve  months'  supply  of 
paptT  for  the  United  States,  aside  from  labor  and  rags,  is  cr^m- 
puted  at  S4:000;000.         *         ♦         ♦ 

'•  The  Harper  establishment,  the  largest  of  our  publishing 
houses,  covers  half  an  acre  of  ground.  If  old  Mr.  Caxton,  who 
printed  those  stories  of  the  Trojan  war  so  long  ago,  could  follow 
the  Ex-Mayor  of  Xew-York  in  one  of  his  morning  rounds  in 
Franklin  Square,  he  would  be,  to  say  the  least,  a  little  surprised. 
lie  would  see  in  one  room  the  floor  loaded  with  the  weight  of 
150  tons  of  presses.  The  electrotyping  process  would  puzzle 
him  somewhat ;  the  drying  and  pressing  process  would  startle 
him  ;  the  bustle  would  make  his  head  ache ;  and  the  stock-room 
would  qu.te  finish  him.  An  edition  of  Harpers'  Monthly  Maga- 
zine alone  consists  of  175,000.  Few  persons  have  any  idea  how 
large  a  number  tliis  is  as  applied  to  the  edition  of  a  book.  It  is 
computed  that  if  the.^^e  magazines  were  to  rain  down,  and  one 
man  should  attempt  to  pick  them  up  like  chips,  it  would  take 
him  a  fortnight  to  pick  up  the  copies  of  one  single  number,  sup- 
posing him  to  pick  up  one  every  second,  and  to  work  ten  hours 
a  day." 

'•The  rapidity  with  which  books  are  now  manufactured  is 
almost  incredible.  A  complete  cop}-  of  one  of  IJuhver's  novels, 
publi.'jhed  across  the  water  in  three  volumes,  and  reproduced 
here  in  one,  was  swept  through  the  press  in  New-York  in  fifty 
hours,  and  ofTercd  for  sale  smoking  hot  in  the  streets.  The  fabu- 
lous edifice  proposed  by  a  Yankee  from  Vermont,  no  longer  seems 
an  impossibility.  'Build  the  establishment  according  to  my 
plan.'  said  he  ;  '  drive  a  sheep  in  at  one  end,  and  he  shall  inime' 
diately  come  out  at  Uie  other,  four  quarters  of  lainl).  a  felt  hat,  a 
leather  apr«  •>.,  and  a  quarto  Bible.'  " 


594  SOUinERN    UrERATURE.  _ 

The  busi  icss  of  the  Messrs.  Harper,  whose  establish- 
ment is  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  extract,  is  probably 
more  generally  diffused  over  every  section  of  this  country 
than  that  of  any  other  publishing  house.  From  enquiries 
recently  made  of  them  we  learn  that  they  issue,  on  an 
average,  3,000  bound  volumes  per  day,  throughout  the  year, 
and  that  each  volume  will  average  500  pages — making  a 
total  of  about  one  million  of  volumes,  and  not  less  than 
five  hundred  millions  of  pages  per  annum.  This  does  not 
include  the  Magazine  and  books  in  pamphlet  form,  each 
of  which  contains  as  much  matter  as  a  bound  volume. — 
Their  bills  for  paper  exceed  $300,000  annually,  and  as  the 
average  cost  is  fifteen  cents  per  pound,  they  consume 
more  than  two  millions  of  pounds — say  one  thousand  tons 
of  white  paper. 

There  are  regularly  employed  in  their  own  premises 
about  550  persons,  including  printers,  binders,  engravers, 
and  clerks.  These  are  all  paid  in  full  once  a  fortnight  in 
bankable  money.  Besides  these,  there  are  numerous  au- 
thors and  artists  in  every  section  of  the  country,  who  fur- 
nish manuscripts  and  illustrations,  on  terms  generally 
satisfactory  to  all  the  parties  interested. 

The  Magazine  has  a  monthly  circulation  of  between 
115,000  and  200,000,  or  about  two  millions  of  copies  annu- 
ally. Each  number  of  the  Magazine  is  closed  up  about 
the  fifth  of  the  month  previous  to  its  date.  Three  or  four 
days  thereafter  the  mailing  begins,  commencing  with 
more  distant  subscribers,  all  of  whom  are  supplied  before 
any  copies  are  sold  for  delivery  in  New-York.  The  inten- 
tion of  the }  'iblishers  is,  that  it  shall  be  delivered  as  nearly 


SOlTriF.RX    LirERATlRE.  395 

as  possible  on  tlie  same  clay  in  St.  Louis,  Xew-Orlcans, 
Cincinnati,  rhilaiK'li>hia,  Boston,  and  Xcw-Yoik.  It  takc3 
from  ton  to  twelve  days  to  dispatch  the  -whole  edition, 
(which  weighs  between  four  and  five  tons,)  by  mail  and 
express. 

Their  new  periodical,  "  Harpers'  Weekly,"  has,  in  a  little 
more  than  four  months,  reached  a  sale  of  nearly  10,000 
copies.  The  mailing  of  this  commences  on  Tuesday  night, 
and  occupies  about  three  days. 

Ex-Mayor  Harper,  whom  we  have  found  to  be  one  of 
the  most  affable  and  estimable  gentlemen  in  the  city  of 
New- York,  informed  us,  sometime  ago,  that,  though  he  had 
no  means  of  knowing  positively,  he  was  of  the  opinion  that 
about  eighty  per  cent,  of  all  their  publications  find  final 
purchasers  in  the  free  States — the  remainder,  about  twenty 
per  cent.,  in  the  slave  States.  Yet  it  is  probable  that,  with 
one  or  two  exceptions,  no  other  publishing  house  in  the 
country  has  so  large  a  per  centagc  of  Southern  trade. 

Of  the  "  more  than  three  hundred  houses  engaged  in  the 
publication  of  books,"  to  which  the  writer  in  the  "Ameri- 
can Publishers'  Circular"  refers,  upwards  of  nine-tenths  of 
the  number  are  in  the  non-slaveholding  States,  and  these 
represent  not  less  than  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the 
whole  capital  invested  in  the  business.  Baltimore  has 
twice  as  many  publishers  as  any  other  Southern  city  ;  and 
nearly  as  many  as  the  whole  South  beside.  The  census 
returns  of  1850  give  but  twenty-four  publishers  for  the 
entire  South,  and  ten  of  these  were  in  Maryland.  The 
relative  disproportion  which  then  existed  in  this  branch 
of  enterprise,  betvcen  the  North  and   the   South,  still 


396  SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 

exists  ;  or,  if  it  lias  been  changed  at  all,  that  change  is 
in  favor  of  the  North.  So  of  all  the  capital,  enterprise 
and  industry  involved  in  the  manufacture  of  the  material 
that  enters  into  the  composition  of  books.  All  the  paper 
manufactories  of  the  South  do  not  produce  enough  to  sup- 
ply a  single  publishing  house  in  the  city  of  New-York. — 
Perhaps  "a  Southern  Literature"  does  not  necessarily  in- 
volve the  enterprises  requisite  to  the  manufacture  of  books  ; 
but  experience  has  shown  that  there  is  a  somewhat  inti- 
mate relation  between  the  author,  printer,  paper-maker 
and  publisher  ;  in  other  words,  that  the  intellectual  activ- 
ity which  expresses  itself  in  books,  is  measurable  by  the 
mechanical  activities  engaged  in  their  manufacture. — 
Thus  a  State  that  is  fruitful  in  authors  will  almost  necessa- 
rily be  fruitful  in  publishers  ;  and  the  number  of  both  classes 
will  be  proportioned  to  the  reading  population.  The  pov- 
erty of  Southern  literature  is  legitimately  shown,  there- 
fore, in  the  paucity  of  Southern  publishers.  We  do  not 
deny  a  high  degree  of  cultivated  talent  to  the  South  ;  we 
are  familiar  with  the  names  of  her  sons  whose  genius  has 
made  them  eminent  ;  all  that  we  insist  upon  is,  that  the 
same  accursed  influence  which  has  smitten  her  industrial 
enterprises  with  paralysis,  and  retarded  indefinitely  her 
material  advancement,  has  exerted  a  corresponding  influ- 
ence upon  her  literature.  How  it  has  done  this  we  shall 
more  fully  indicate  before  we  close  the  chapter. 

At  the  "  Southern  Convention"  held  some  months  since 
at  Savannah,  a  good  deal  was  said  about  "  Southern  liter- 
ature," and  many  suggestions  made  in  reference  to  the 
best  means  for  its  promotion.     One  speaker  thought  that 


SOlTlir.nX    I.TTF.RATrRE.  SOT 

"  they  ccnilcl  g-ot  toxt-books  at  lioino  without  ^oiuj^  to  cither 
OKI  Eii-hin.l  or  New  Kno-huul  for  tliom."  Well  -they  can 
try.  The  elVort  will  not  harm  tlieiii  ;  nor  the  North  eitiuM'. 
Tlie  orator  was  confident "  that  the  South  had  talent  enough 
to  do  anything  that  needs  to  be  done,  and  independence 
enough  to  do  it."  The  talent  we  shall  not  deny  ;  the  inda- 
fendence  we  are  ready  to  believe  in  when  we  see  it.  AVhen 
she  throws  off  the  incubus  of  slavery  under  which  she  goes 
staggering  like  the  Sailor  of  Bagdad  under  the  weight  of 
the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  she  will  prove  her  independence, 
and  demonstrate  her  ability  "to  do  anything  that  needs  to 
bo  done."  Till  then  she  is  but  a  fettered  giant,  wliosc 
vitals  arc  torn  by  the  dogs  which  her  own  folly  has  engen- 
dered. 

Another  speaker,  on  the  occasion  referred  to,  half-uncon- 
sciously  it  would  seem,  threw  a  gleam  of  light  upon  the 
subject  under  discussion,  which,  had  not  himself  and  his 
hearers  been  bat-blind,  would  have  revealed  the  clue  that 
conducts  from  the  darkness  in  which  they  burrow  to  the 
day  of  redemption  for  the  South.     Said  he  : — 

'•  Northern  publishers  employ  the  talent  of  the  South  and  of 
the  whole  country  to  write  for  them,  and  pour  out  thousands  an- 
nually for  it ;  but  Southern  men  expect  to  get  talent  without 
paying  for  it.  The  Southerfi  Quarteilij  Review  and  the  Literary 
Messenger  are  literally  struggling  for  existence,  for  want  of  mate- 
rial aid.  *  *  *  It  is  not  the  South  that  builds  up  Northern  lit- 
erature— they  do  it  themselcea.  There  is  talent  and  mind  and 
poetic  genius  enough  in  the  South  to  build  up  a  literature  of  a 
high  order  ;  but  Southern  puhlirihers  cannot  get  money  enough 
to  assist  them  in  their  enterprises,  and,  therefore,  the  South  ha.i 
uo  literature. 


398  SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 

Here  are  truths.  "  Southern  men  expect  to  get  tale.it 
without  paying  for  it."  A  very  natural  expectation,  con- 
sidering that  they  have  been  accustomed  to  have  all  their 
material  wants  supplied  by  the  uncompensated  toil  of  their 
slaves.  In  this  instance  it  may  seem  an  absurd  one,  but 
it  results  legitimately  from  the  system  of  slavery.  That 
system,  in  fact,  operates  in  a  two-fold  way  against  the 
Southern  publisher:  :  first,  by  its  practical  repudiation  of 
the  scriptural  axiom  that  the  laboreris  worthy  of  his  hire  ; 
and  secondly,  by  restricting  the  circle  of  readers  through 
the  ignorance  which  it  inevitably  engenders.  How  is  it 
that  the  people  of  the  Xorth  build  up  their  literature  ? — 
Two  words  reveal  the  secret  :  intelligence — compensation. 
They  are  a  reading  jpeojple — the  poorest  artizan  or  day-laborer 
has  his  shelf  of  books,  or  his  daily  or  weekly  paper,  whose 
contents  he  seldom  fails  to  master  before  retiring  at  night ; 
and  they  are  accustomed  to  'pay  for  all  the  looks  and  papers  which 
they  peruse.  Readers  and  payers — these  are  the  men  who 
insure  the  prosperity  of  publishers.  Where  a  system  of 
enforced  servitude  prevails,  it  is  very  apt  to  beget  loose 
notions  about  the  obligation  of  paying  for  anything  ;  and 
many  minds  fail  to  see  the  distinction,  morally,  between 
compelling  Sambo  to  pick  cotton  without  paying  him  wa- 
ges, or  compelling  Lippincott  &  Co.  to  manufacture  books 
for  the  planter's  pleasure  or  edification  upon  the  same  lib- 
eral terms.  But  more  than  this — where  a  system  of  en- 
forced servitude  prevails,  a  fearful  degree  of  ignorance 
prevails  also,  as  its  necessary  accompaniment.  The  en- 
slaved masses  are,  of  course,  thrust  back  from  the  fountains 
of  knowledge  by  the  sti  'tng  arm  of  law,  while  the  poor 


SOUTHERX   LrrERATmE.  399 

non-slavcliolding  classes  arc  almost  as  cfTectually  excluded 
from  the  institutions  of  learning  by  their  poverty — the 
sparse  population  of  slaveholding  districts  being  unfavor- 
able to  the  maintenance  of  free  schools,  and  the  exigencies 
of  their  condition  forbidding  them  to  avail  themselves  of 
any  more  costly  educational  privileges. 

Northern  publishers  can  "  employ  the  talent  of  the  South 
and  of  the  whole  country  to  write  for  them,  and  pour  out 
thousands  annually  for  it,"  simply  because  a  reading  poj)- 
ulation,  accustomed  to  pay  for  the  service  wliich  it  receives, 
enables  them  to  do  so.  A  similar  population  at  the  South 
would  enable  Southern  publishers  to  do  the  same.  Substi- 
tute free  labor  for  slave  labor,  the  institutions  of  freedom 
for  those  of  slavery,  and  it  would  not  long  remain  true 
that  "  Southern  publishers  cannot  get  money  enough  to 
assist  them  in  their  enterprises,  and  therefore  the  South 
has  no  literature."  This  is  the  discovery  which  the  South 
Carolina  orator  from  whom  we  (iuoto,  but  narrowdy  escaped 
making,  wlien  he  stood  upon  its  very  edge,  and  rounded 
his  periods  with  the  truths  in  whose  unapprehended  mean- 
ings was  hidden  this  germ  of  redemption  for  a  nation. 

The  self-stultification  of  fully,  however,  was  never  more 
evident  than  it  is  in  the  current  gabble  of  the  oligarchs 
about  a  "  Southern  literature."  They  do  not  mean  by  it  a 
healthy,  manly,  normal  utterance  of  unfettered  minds, 
without  which  there  can  be  no  proper  literature  ;  but  an 
emasculated  substitute  therefor,  from  which  the  element, 
of  freedom  is  eliminated  ;  husks,  from  which  the  kernel 
has  escaped — a  body,  from  which  the  vitalizing  spirit  has 
fled — a  literature  which  ignores  manhood  by  confounding 


400  SOITIIERN    LITERATTRE, 

it  with  brutehood  ;  or,  ill  best,  deals  with  all  sii  iles  jf 
freedom  as  treason  against  the  "  peculiar  institution." 
There  is  not  a  single  great  name  in  the  literary  annals  of 
the  old  or  new  world  that  could  drawf  itself  to  the  stature 
requisite  to  gain  admission  into  the  Pantheon  erected  by 
tiiese  devotees  of  the  Inane  for  their  Lilliputian  deities. 
Thank  God,  a  "  Southern  literature,"  in  the  sense  intended 
by  the  champions  of  slavery,  is  a  simple  impossibility, 
rendered  such  by  that  exility  of  mind  which  they  demand 
in  its  producers  as  a  prerequisite  to  admission  into  the 
guild  of  Southern  authorship.  The  tenuous  thoughts  of 
such  authorlings  could  not  survive  a  single  breath  of  manly 
criticism.  The  history  of  the  rise,  progress,  and  decline  of 
their  literature  could  be  easily  written  on  a  child's  smooth 
palm,  and  leave  space  enough  for  its  funeral  oration  and 
epitaph.  The  latter  might  appropriately  be  that  which, 
in  one  of  our  rural  districts,  marks  the  grave  of  a  still-born 
infant : —  • 

"  If  so  early  I  am  done  for, 
I  wonder  what  I  was  begun  for  !" 

We  desire  to  see  the  South  bear  its  just  proportion  in 
the  literary  activities  and  achievements  of  our  common 
country.  It  has  never  yet  done  so,  and  it  never  will  until 
its  own  manhood  is  vindicated  in  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
The  impulse  which  such  a  measure  would  give  to  all  in- 
dustrial pursuits  that  deal  with  the  elements  of  material 
prosperity,  would  be  imparted  also  to  the  no  less  valuable 
but  more  intangible  creations  of  the  mind.  Take  from  the 
intellect  of  the  South  the  incubus  which  now  oppresses  it, 
and  its  rebour.d  would  be  glorious  ;  the  era  of  its  diviner 


SOITIIKRX    I.ITKRATl'KE.  40X 

inspirations  would  begin  ;  and  its  triumphs  would  be  a 
perpetual  vindication  of  the  superiority  of  free  institutions 
over  those  of  slavery. 

To  Duyckinck's  "  Cyclopedia  of  American  T^iterature — a 
sort  of  Omniuvi-gathcrum  that  reminds  one  of  Jeremiah's 
figs — we  are  indebted  for  the  following  facts  :  The  whole 
number  of  "  American  authors"  whose  place  of  nativity 
is  given,  is  five  hundred  and  sixty-nine.  Of  these  seventy- 
nine  were  foreign  born,  eighty-seven  were  natives  of  the 
South,  and  four  hundred  and  three — a  vast  majority  of 
the  whole,  first  breathed  the  vital  air  in  the  free  North. 
Many  of  those  who  were  born  in  the  South,  received  their 
education  in  the  North,  quite  a  number  of  whom  became 
permanent  residents  thereof.  Still,  for  the  purposes  of 
this  computation,  we  count  them  on  the  side  of  the  South. 
Yet  how  significant  the  comparison  which  this  computa- 
tion furnishes  I  Throwing  the  foreign  born  (adopted 
citizens,  mostly  residents  of  the  North)  out  of  the  reckoning, 
and  the  record  stands, — Northern  authors /oz^r  hundred  and 
three;  Southern,  eighty-seven — a  dificrencc  of  three  hundred 
and  sixteen  in  favor  of  the  North  1  And  this,  probably, 
indicates  very  fairly  the  relative  intellectual  activity  of 
the  two  sections. 

We  accept  the  facts  gleaned  from  Duyckinck's  work  as 
a  basis,  simply,  of  our  estimate  :  not  as  being  absolutely 
accurate  in  themselves,  though  they  arc  doubtless  relia- 
ble in  the  main,  and  certainly  as  fair  for  the  South  as 
they  are  for  the  North.  We  might  dissent  from  the  judg- 
ment of  the  compiler  in  reference  to  the  propriety  of 
applying  the  teiTQ  "  literature"  to  much  that  his  compila- 


402  SOLTHERN    UTERATURE. 

tion  contains  ;  but  as  tastes  have  proTcrbially  differed 
from  the  days  of  the  venerable  dame  who  kissed  her  cow 
— not  to  extend  our  researches  into  the  condition  of  tilings 
anterior  to  that  interesting  event — we  will  not  insist  upon 
our  view  of  the  matter,  but  take  it  for  granted  that  he  has 
disentombed  from  forgotten  reviews,  newspapers,  pamph- 
lets, and  posters,  a  fair  relative  proportion  of  "  autliors'' 
for  both  North  and  South,  for  which  "  American  Litera- 
ture" is  unquestionably  under  infinite  obligations  to  him  I 

Griswold's  "Poets  and  Poetry  of  America"  and  Thomos 
Buchanan  Read's  "  Female  Poets  of  America"  furnish  evi- 
dence, equally  conclusive,  of  the  benumbing  influence  of 
slavery  upon  the  intellect  of  a  country.  Of  course,  these 
compilers  say  notliing  about  Slavery,  and  probably  never 
thought  of  it  in  connection  with  their  respective  works, 
but  none  the  less  significant  on  that  account  is  the  testi- 
mony of  the/rtc/5  which  they  give.  From  the  last  edition 
of  Griswold's  compilation,  f which  contains  the  names  of 
none  of  our  female  writers,  he  having  included  them  in  a 
separate  volume)  we  find  the  names  of  one  hundred  and 
forty-one  writers  of  verse  :  of  these  one  was  foreign-born, 
seventeen  natives  of  the  slaveholding,  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  of  the  non-slaveholding  States.  Of  our  female 
poets,  whose  nativity  is  given  by  Mr.  Read,  ela-en  are 
natives  of  the  South  ;  and  seventy-three  of  the  North  I  These 
simple  arithmetical  figures  are  God's  eternal  Scripture 
against  the  folly  and  madness  of  Slavery,  and  need  no  aid 
of  rhetoric  to  give  emphasis  to  the  startling  eloquence  of 
tb^iir  revelations. 

But,  after  all,  literature  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  cubi^^. 


SOITIIKRN      irF.RATURE.  403 

feet  or  pounds  avcrdiipois,  nor  measured  by  the  bushel  or 
the  yardstick.  Quality,  rather  than  quantity,  is  the  true 
standard  of  estimation.  The  fact,  however,  matters  little 
for  our  present  purpose  ;  for  the  South,  we  are  sorry  to 
say,  is  as  much  behind  the  North  in  the  former  as  in  the 
latter.  We  do  not  forget  the  names  of  Gayarre,  Benton, 
Simms,  and  other  eminent  citizens  of  tlie  Slave  States, 
who  have  by  their  contributions  to  American  letters  con- 
ferred honor  upon  themselves  and  upon  our  common  coun- 
try, when  we  affirm,  tliat  those  among-  our  authors  wlio 
enjoy  a  cosmopolitan  reputation,  are,  with  a  few  honor- 
able exceptions,  natives  of  the  Free  North  ;  and  that  the 
names  which  most  brilliantly  illustrate  our  literature,  in 
its  every  department,  are  tiiose  which  have  grown  into 
greatness  under  the  nurturing  influence  of  free  institu- 
tions. "  Comparisons  are  odious,"  it  is  said  ;  and  we  will 
not,  unnecessarily,  render  them  more  so,  in  the  present 
instance,  by  contrasting,  name  by  name,  the  literary  men 
of  the  South  with  the  literary  men  of  the  North.  We  do 
not  depreciate  the  former,  nor  overestimate  the  latter. 
But  let  us  ask,  whence  come  our  geographers,  our  astron- 
omers, our  chemists,  our  meteorologists,  our  ethnologists, 
and  others,  who  have  made  their  names  illustrious  in  the 
domain  of  the  Natural  Sciences  ?  Not  from  the  Slave 
States,  certainly.  In  the  Literature  of  Law,  the  South 
can  furnish  no  name  that  can  claim  peership  with  those  of 
Story  and  of  Kent ;  in  Ilistoiy,  none  that  tower  up  to  the 
altitude  of  Bancroft,  Prcscott,  Ilildrcth,  Motley  and  Wash- 
ington Irving  ;  in  Theology,  none  that  can  challenge 
favorable  compariso.:    with  those   of  Edwards,  D wight. 


404  SOUTHERN    L'TKRATURE. 

Channiiig,  Taylor,  BuslincU,  Tyler  and  Wayland  in  Fio 
tiou,  none  11  at  take  rank  with  Cooper,  and  Mrs.  Stowc  ; 
and  but  few  that  may  do  so  with  even  the  second  class 
novelists  of  the  North  ;*  in  Poetry,  none  that  can  command 
position  with  Bryant,  Halleck,  and  Percival,  with  Whit- 
tier,  Longfellow,  and  Lowell,  with  Willis,  Stoddard  and 
Taylor,  with  Holmes,  Saxe,  and  Burleigh  ;  and — we  might 
add  twenty  other  Northern  names  before  we  found  their 
Southern  peer,  with  the  exception  of  poor  Poe,  who,  with- 
in a  narrow  range  of  subjects,  showed  himself  a  poet 
of  consummate  art,  and  occupies  a  sort  of  debatable 
ground  between  our  first  and  second-class  writers. 

We  might  extend  this  comparison  to  our  writers  in 
every  department  of  letters,  from  the  compiler  of  school- 
books  to  the  author  of  the  most  profound  ethical  treatise, 
and  with  precisely  the  same  result.  But  we  forbear. 
The  task  is  distasteful  to  our  State  pride,  and  would  have 
been  entirely  avoided  had  not  a  higher  principle  urged  us 
to  its  performance.     It  remains  for  us  now  to  enquire, 

What  has  produced  this  literary  pauperism  of  the  South  ? 
One  single  word,  most  pregnant  in  its  terrible  meanings, 
answers  the  question.  That  word  is — Slavery  I  But  we 
have  been  so  long  accustomed  to  the  ugly  thing  itself, 
and  have  become  so  familiar  with  its  no  less  ugly  fruits, 
that  the  common  mind  fails  to  apprehend  the  connection 
between  the  one,  as  cause,  and  the  other  as  effect  ;    and 


*  We  Southrons  all  glory  in  the  literary  reputation  of  Mr.  Simras ; 
yet  we  must  confess  his  inferiority  to  Cooper,  and  prejudice  alone 
will  refuse  to  admit,  that,  while  in  the  art  of  the  novelist  he  is  tho 
superior  of  Mrs.  Stowe  ^i  genius  he  must  take  position  below  her. 


SOUTnCRN'    LITERATl'RE.  405 

it  tiicR'forc  becomes  necessary  to  give  a  more  iletailcil 
answer  to  our  interrogatory. 

Obviously,  tlien,  tlic  ci^nditions  ro(iuisite  to  a  flourish- 
ing literature  arc  wanting  at  the  South.     These  are — 

I.  Readers.  The  people  of  the  South  arc  not  a  rcadiug 
people.  Many  of  the  adult  population  never  learned  to 
read  ;  still  more,  do  not  care  to  read.  We  have  boon  im- 
pressed, during  a  temporary  sojourn  in  tlie  North,  with 
the  diflerencc  between  the  middle  and  laboring  classes  in 
the  Free  States,  and  the  same  classes  in  the  Slave  States, 
in  this  respect.  Passing  along  the  great  routes  of  travel 
in  the  former,  or  taking  our  seat  in  the  comfortable  cars 
that  pass  up  and  down  the  avenues  of  our  great  commer- 
cial metropolis,  we  have  not  failed  to  contrast  the  emplo}"- 
ment  of  our  fellow-passengers  with  that  which  occupies 
the  attention  of  the  corresponding  classes  on  our  various 
Southern  routes  of  travel.  In  the  one  case,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  passengers  seem  intent  upon  mastering  the 
contents  of  the  newspaper,  or  some  recently  published 
book.  The  merchant,  the  mechanic,  the  artizan,  the  pro- 
fessional man,  and  even  the  common  laborer,  going  to  or 
returning  from  their  daily  avocations,  are  busy  with  their 
morning  or  evening  paper,  or  engaged  in  an  intelligent 
discussion  of  some  topic  of  public  interest.  This  is  their 
leisure  hour,  and  it  is  given  to  the  acquisition  of  such  in- 
formation as  may  be  of  immediate  or  ultimate  use,  or  to 
the  cultivation  of  a  taste  for  elegant  literature.  In  the 
other  case,  newspapers  and  books  seem  generally  ignored, 
and  noisy  discussions  of  village  and  State  politicj;,  the 
tobacco  and  cotton  crops,  filibueterism  in  Cuba,  Nicaragua, 


406  SOCTHERN    LITERATURE. 

or  Sonora,  the  price  of  negroes  generally,  and  especially 
of  "fine-looking  wenches,"  the  beauties  of  lynch-law,  the 
delights  of  horse-racing,  the  excitement  of  street  fights 
with  bowie-knives  and  revolvers,  the  "manifest  destiny" 
theory  that  justifies  the  stealing  of  all  territory  contigu- 
ous to  our  own,  and  kindred  topics,  constitute  the  warp 
and  woof  of  conversation.  All  this  is  on  a  level  with  the 
general  intelligence  of  the  Slave  States.  It  is  true,  these 
States  have  their  educated  men, — the  majority  of  whom 
owe  their  literary  culture  to  the  colleges  of  the  North. 
Not  that  there  are  no  Southern  colleges — for  there  are  in- 
stitutions, so  called,  in  a  majority  of  the  Slave  States. — 
Some  of  them,  too,  are  not  deficient  in  the  appointments 
requisite  to  our  higher  educational  institutions  ;  but  as  a 
general  thing.  Southern  colleges  are  colleges  only  in  'name, 
and  will  scarcely  take  rank  with  a  third-rate  Northern 
academy,  while  our  academies,  with  a  few  exceptions,  are 
immeasurably  inferior  to  the  public  schools  of  New- York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Boston.  The  truth  is,  there  is  a  vast 
inert  mass  of  stupidity  and  ignorance,  too  dense  for  indi- 
vidual effort  to  enlighten  or  remove,  in  all  communities 
cursed  with  the  institution  of  slavery.  Disguise  the  un- 
welcome truth  as  we  may,  slavery  is  the  parent  of  igno- 
rance, and  ignorance  begets  a  whole  brood  of  follies  and 
of  vices,  and  every  one  of  these  is  inevitably  hostile  to 
literary  culture.  The  masses,  if  they  think  of  literature 
at  all,  think  of  it  only  as  a  costly  luxury,  to  be  monopo- 
lized by  the  few. 

The  proportion  of  white  adults  over  twenty  years  of  ago, 


SOmirRN    I.ITERATrRF.  407 

in  each  State,  who  cannot  read  and  write,  to  the  ichvU 
white  popuhxtion,  is  as  follows  : 


Connecticut, 

1 

to  ever} 

5G8 

Louisiana, 

1  to 

ever} 

38i 

Vermont, 

(( 

473 

^laryiand 

u 

27 

N.  Hampshire, 

(( 

310 

Mississippi, 

(( 

20 

Massachusetts, 

" 

IGG 

Delaware, 

(( 

18 

Maine, 

u 

108 

South  Carolina, 

i( 

17 

Michigan, 

u 

97 

Missouri, 

«< 

IG 

lUiode  Island, 

iC 

G7 

Alabama, 

it 

15 

New  Jersey, 

<; 

58 

Kentucky, 

« 

13i 

New  York, 

a 

5G 

Georgia, 

<( 

13 

Pennsylvania. 

C( 

50 

Virginia, 

" 

12i 

Ohio,  ' 

li 

43 

Arkansas, 

(( 

Hi 

huliana, 

a 

18 

Tennessee, 

c 

11 

Illinois, 

;; 

17 

North  Carolina, 

•' 

7 

In  this  table,  Illinois  and  Indiana  arc  the  only  Free 
States  which,  in  point  of  education,  are  surpassed  by  any 
of  the  Slave  States  ;  and  this  disgraceful  fact  is  owing", 
principally,  to  the  inllux  of  foreigners,  and  to  immigrants 
fi'oni  the  Slave  States.  New- York,  Khodo  Island,  and 
Pennsylvania  have  also  a  large  foreign  element  in  their 
population,  that  swells  very  considerably  this  percent- 
age of  ignorance.  For  instance,  New- York  shows,  by 
the  last  census,  a  population  of  98,722  who  cannot  read 
and  write,  and  of  this  number  68,052  are  foreigners  ; 
Rhode  Island,  3,G0T,  of  whom  2,359  are  foreigners  ;  Penn- 
sylvania, 76,272,  of  whom  24,989  are  foreigners.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  ignorance  of  the  Slave  States  is  princi- 
pally nalive  ignorance,  but  comparatively  few  emigrants 
from  Europe  seeking  a  home  upon  a  soil  cursed  with  "tho 
peculiar  institution."     North  Carolina  has  a  foreign  popu- 


408  SOUTHERN   LITERATCRE. 

lation  of  only  340,  South  Carolina  only  104,  Arkansas  only 
27,  Tennessee  only  505,  and  Virginia  only  1,137,  who  can- 
not read  and  write  ;  while  the  aggregate  of  native  igno- 
rance in  these  five  States  (exclusive  of  the  slaves,  who  are 
debarred  all  education  by  law)  is  2T8,948  !  No  longer  ago 
than  1837,  Governor  Clarke,  of  Kentucky,  in  his  message 
to  the  Legislature  of  that  State,  declared  that  "  by  the 
computation  of  those  most  familiar  with  the  subject,  one- 
third  of  the  adult  population  of  the  State  are  unable  to  write 
their  names  f^  and  Governor  Campbell,  of  Virginia,  reported 
to  the  Legislature,  that  "from  the  returns  of  ninety-eight 
clerks,  it  appeared  that  of  4,614  applications  for  marriage 
licenses  in  1837,  no  less  than  1,047  were  made  by  men 
unable  to  write." 

In  the  Slave  States  the  proportion  of  free  white  children 
between  the  ages  of  five  and  twenty,  who  are  found  at 
any  school  or  college,  is  not  quite  one-fifth  of  the  whole  ; 
in  the  Free  States,  the  proportion  is  more  than  three-fifths. 

"We  could  fill  our  pages  with  facts  like  these  to  an 
almost  indefinite  extent,  but  it  cannot  be  necessary.  No 
truth  is  more  demonstrable,  nay,  no  truth  has  been  more 
abundantly  demonstrated,  than  this  :  that  Slavery  is  hos- 
tile to  general  education  ;  its  strength,  its  very  life,  is  in 
Ihe  ignorance  and  stolidity  of  the  masses  ;  it  naturally 
and  necessarily  represses  general  literary  culture.  To 
talk,  therefore,  of  the  "  creation  of  a  purely  Southern 
Literature,"  without  readers  to  demand,  or  writers  to  pro- 
duce it,  is  the  mere  babble  of  idiocy. 

II.  Another  thing  essential  to  the  creation  of  a  litera- 
ture is  Mental  Freedom.    How  much  of  that  is  to  be  fbund 


SOCTIIERV    LITERATinF..  409 

in  the  region  of  Slavery  ?    We  will  not  say  that  there  ia 

nam ;  but  if  it  exists,  it  exists  as  the  outlawed  antagonist 

uf  human  chattelhoot-l.     He  who  believes  that  the  desjxH 

tisni  of  the  accursed    institution  expends    its  nuilignaiit 

forces  upon  the  slai't,  leaving  intact  the  white  and  (so  called) 

free  pi^pulation,  is  the  victim  of  a  most  monstrous   delu 

si«)n     One  end  of  the  yoke  that  bows  the  African  to  tlie 

dust,  presses  heavily  upon  the  neck  of  his  Anglo-Saxou 

master.     The  entire  mind  of  the  South  either   stultifies 

itself  into    acquiescence  with   Slavery,   succumbs  to  its 

authority,    or   chafes   in   indignant   protest    against    its 

monstrous  pretensions  and  outrageous  usurpations.      A 

free  press  is  an  institution  almost  unknown  at  the  South. 

Free  speech  is  considered  as  treason  against   slavery  : 

and    when   people   dare    neither   speak   nor   print    their 

thoughts,  free  thought  itself  is  well  nigh  extinguished. 

All  that  can  be  said  in  defence  of  human  bondage,  may  be 

spoken  freely  ;    but  question  either  its  morality   or  its 

policy,  and  the  terrors  of  \y\\c\\  law  are  at  once  invoked  to 

put  down  the  pestilent  heresy.     The  legislation   of  the 

Slave  States  for  the  suppression  of  the  freedom  of  speech 

and  the  press,  ia  disgraceful  and  cowardly  to  the  last 

degree,  and  can  find  its  parallel  only  in  the  meanest  and 

bloodiest  despotisms  of  the  Old  World.     No  institution 

that  could  boar  the  light  would  thus  sneakingly  seek  to 

burrow  itself  in  utter  darkness.  Look,  too,  at  the  mobbings, 

lynchings,  robberies,  social  and   political   proscriptions, 

and  all  manner  of  nameless  outrages,  to  which  men  in  the 

South  have  been  subjected,  simply  upon  the  suspicion  that 

the}'  were  the  enemies  of  Slrivrry.     We  could  fill  page 

18 


410  SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 

after  page  of  tliis  v(jliiine  with  the  recoid  of  such  atroci- 
ties. Bat  a  simple  reference  to  them  is  enough.  Our 
countrymen  have  not  yet  forgotten  why  John  C.  Under- 
wood Avas,  but  a  few  months  since,  banished  from  his 
home  in  Virginia,  and  the  accomplished  Hedreck  driven 
from  his  College  professorship  in  North  Carolina.  Th^-y 
believed  Slavery  inimical  to  the  best  interest  of  the  South, 
and  for  daring  to  give  expression  to  this  belief  in  mode- 
rate yet  manly  language,  they  were  ostracised  by  the 
despotic  Slave  Power,  and  compelled  to  seek  a  refuge 
from  its  vengeance  in  States  where  the  principles  of  free- 
dom are  better  understood.  Pending  the  last  Presiden- 
tial election,  there  were  thousands,  nay,  tens  of  thousands 
of  voters  in  the  Slave  States,  who  desired  to  give  their 
tiulTrages  for  the  Republican  nominee,  John  C.  Fremont 
himself  a  Southron,  but  a  non-slaveholder.  The  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  guaranteed  to  these  men  an 
expression  of  their  preference  at  the  ballot-box.  But  were 
they  permitted  such  an  expression?  Not  at  all.  They 
were  denounced,  threatened,  overawed,  by  the  Slave 
Power — and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  there  was 
really  no  Constitutional  election, — that  is,  no  such  free  ex- 
pression of  political  preferences  as  the  Constitution  aims 
to  secure — in  a  majority  of  the  Slave  States. 

From  a  multiplicity  of  facts  like  these,  the  inference  is 
unavoidable,  that  Slavery  tolerates  no  freedom  of  the 
press — no  freedom  of  speech — no  freedom  of  opinion.  To 
expect  that  a  whole-S(mled,  manly  literature  can  flourish 
under  such  c  mditions,  is  as  absurd  as  it  would  be  to  look 
for  health  amid  the  pestilential  vapors  of  a  dungeon,  or 


sorrnEnx  utf.ratl-rk.  411 

for  tlic  continuance  of  animal  lifi^  wit.  out  the  aid  of 
oxyg-on. 

HI.  Mental  activity — force — enterprise — arc  requisite 
to  the  creation  of  literature.  Slavery  tends  to  sluggish- 
ness— imbecility — inertia.  Where  free  thought  is  trea 
son,  the  masses  will  not  long  take  the  trouble  of  thinking 
at  all.  Desuetude  begets  '.ncompetencc — the  dare-not  soon 
becomes  the  cannot.  The  mind  thus  enslaved,  necessarily 
loses  its  interest  in  the  ju'ocesses  of  other  minds  ;  and  its 
tendency  is  to  sink  down  into  absolute  stolidity  or  sot- 
tishness.  Our  remarks  find  melancholy  confirmation  in 
the  abject  servilism  in  whicli  multitudes  of  the  non-slave- 
holding  whites  of  the  South  are  involved.  In  them, 
ambition,  pride,  self-respect,  hope,  seem  alike  extinct. 
Their  slaveholding  fellows  are,  in  some  respects,  in  a  still 
more  unhappy  condition — helpless,  nerveless,  ignorant, 
selfish  ;  yet  vain-glorious,  self-sufiicient  and  brutal.  Are 
these  the  chosen  architects  who  are  expected  to  build  up 
"  a  purely  Southern  literature  ?" 

The  truth  is,  slavery  destroys,  or  vitiates,  or  pollutes, 
whatever  it  touches.  No  interest  of  society  escapes  the 
influence  of  its  clinging  curse.  It  makes  Southern  religion 
a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  Christendom — it  makes  Southern 
politics  a  libel  upon  all  the  principles  of  liCimblicanism — 
it  makes  Southern  literature  a  travesty  upon  the  honora- 
ble profession  of  letters.  Than  the  better  class  of  South- 
ern authors  tJiemselves,  none  will  feel  more  keenly  the 
truth  of  our  remarks.  They  write  books,  but  can  find  for 
thcrn  neither  publishers  nor  remunerative  sales  at  tho 
South      The  executors  of  Calhoun  seek,  for  his  workn,  a 


412  SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 

Northern  publisher.  Benton  writes  history  .*nd  prepares 
voluminous  compilations,  which  are  given  to  the  world 
through  a  Northern  publisher.  Simms  writes  novels  and 
poems,  and  they  are  scattered  abroad  from  the  presses  of 
a  Northern  publisher.  Eighty  per  cent,  of  all  the  copies 
sold  are  probably  bought  by  Northern  readers. 

When  will  Southern  authors  understand  their  own  in- 
terests ?  When  will  the  South,  as  a  whole,  abandoning 
its  present  suicidal  policy,  enter  upon  that  career  of  pros- 
perity, greatness,  and  true  renown,  to  which  God  by  his 
word  and  his  providences,  is  calling  it  ?  "If  thou  take 
away  from  the  midst  of  thee  the  yoke,  the  putting  forth 
of  the  finger  and  speaking  vanity  ;  and  if  thou  draw  out 
thy  soul  to  the  hungry  and  satisfy  the  afflicted  soul  ;  then 
shall  thy  light  rise  in  obscurity  and  thy  darkness  be  as  the 
noonday  :  And  the  Lord  shall  guide  thee  continually  and 
satisfy  thy  soul  in  drought,  and  make  fat  thy  bones  ;  and 
thou  shalt  be  like  a  watered  g-arden,  and  like  a  spring  of 
water,  whose  waters  fail  not.  And  they  that  shall  be  of 
thee  shall  build  the  old  waste  places  ;  thou  shalt  raise  up 
the  foundations  of  many  generations  ;  and  thou  shalt  be 
called,  The  repairer  of  the  breach.  The  restorer  of  paths  to 
dwell  in." 

Our  limits,  not  our  materials,  are  exhausted.  We  would 
gladly  say  more,  but  can  only,  in  conclusion,  add  as  the 
result  of  our  investigations  in  this  department  of  our  sub- 
ject, that  Literatim  and  Liberty  are  inseparable  ;  the  one  can 
never  have  a  vigoroiis  ensfence  icithout  being  weddcA  to  the  other. 


CONCLl  .-lOX.  413 

Our  work  is  Jouo.  It  is  the  voice  of  the  non-shwcliold- 
iug  whiles  of  tho  South,  through  one  identified  with  them 
by  interest,  by  feeling-,  by  position.  That  voice,  by  whom- 
soever spoken,  must  yet  be  heard  and  heeded.  The  time 
hastens — the  doom  of  slavery  is  written — the  redemption 
of  the  South  draws  nigh. 

In  taking  leave  of  our  readers,  we  know  not  how  we 
can  give  more  forcible  expression  to  our  thoughts  and  in- 
tentions than  by  saying  that,  in  concert  with  the  intelligent 
free  voters  of  the  North,  we,  the  non-slaveholding  whites 
of  the  South,  expect  to  elevate  John  C.  Fremont,  Cassius 
M.  Clay,  James  G.  Birney,  or  some  other  Southern  non- 
slaveholder,  to  the  Presidency  in  I8G0  ;  and  that  the  pa- 
triot thus  elevated  to  that  dignified  station  will,  through 
our  cordial  co-operation,  be  succeeded  by  Wiluam  II.  Sew- 
ART,  Charles  Sumner,  John  McLean,  or  some  other  non- 
slaveholder  of  the  North  ; — and  furthermore,  that  if,  in 
these  or  in  any  other  similar  cases,  the  oligarchs  do  not 
quietly  submit  to  the  will  of  a  constitutional  majority  of 
the  people,  as  expressed  at  the  ballot-box,  the  first  battle 
between  freedom  and  slavery  will  be  fought  at  home — and 
may  God  defend  the  right  1 


rHE  LSD. 


G  E  X  i;  U  A  I    1 1\  D  E  X. 


Abstract  of  tlie  Author's  Plan  for  the  Aholition  of  SKavcry,  155. 

Achcnwall,  2'.>. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  230. 

Agriculture  and  taher  out-door  pursuits,  numhcr  of  free  white  male 

Southrons  enizaiit'd  in,  2'.»8. 
Aiiricultural   Products, — See   Corn,  Wheat,  Rye,  Oats,  Barley,  Ilay, 

Cotton,  Tobacco,  &c.  <S:c. 
Animals  Slau2[litered,  Value  of,  71. 
Anti-slavery  Letters  from  native  Southrons,  874. 
Area  of  the  several  States  and  Territories.  IV-l. 
Aristotle,  2oG. 
Attorneys-General,  312. 
Baltimore,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  3.']7. 
Baltimore,  Past,  Preseiit,  and  Future,  352. 
Baltimore,  Why  this  Work  was  not  published  there,  360. 
Bancroft,  Geor<ze,  384. 
Bank  Capital  of  the  several  States,  2S6. 
Banks,  James,  384. 
Baptist  Testimony,  263. 
Barley,  30. 

Barnes,  Rev.  Albert,  250. 
Beans  and  Peas,  37. 
Beatlie,  James,  251. 
Beeswax  and  Honey,  04. 
Benton,  Thomas  li.,  10,  105,  107,  207. 
Bible  Testimony,  275 — Bible  Cause  Contributions,  296. 
Birney,  James  G.,  214,  413. 
Blackstone,  Sir  William,  248. 
Blair,  Francis  P.,  105,  167,  213. 
Boiling,  Philip  A.,  211. 
Book  MakiniT  in  America,  302. 
Booth,  Abraham,  208. 
Boston,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  338. 
Botts,  John  M.,  107. 
Brisbane,  Rev.  Mr.,  203. 
Brissol,  253. 

Brooklyn,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  339 
Brougham,  Lord,  250. 
Browne,  R.  K.,  322. 
Buchanan,  James,  170. 
Buckwheat,  37. 

Buffalo,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  3U. 
Butloa,  253. 
Burke,  Edmund,  250. 
Butlo",  Bishop,  261. 


416  GEXERAL    INDEX, 

Butter  and  Cliecse,  64. 

Cameron,  Paul  C,  49,  55. 

Canals,  miles  of,  in  the  several  States.  285 

Cane,  Sugar,  53,  Go. 

Cortwright,  Dr.,  of  New-Orleans,  301. 

Catholic  Testimony,  271. 

Chandler,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  211. 

Charleston,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  3^0. 

Chicago,  Letter  from,  342. 

Ciiurches,  Value  of,  in  the  several  States,  291 

Cicero,  254. 

Cincinnati,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  340. 

Oities,  nine  Free  and  nine  Slave,  347. 

Clarke,  Dr.  Adam,  269. 

Clarke,  fudge,  of  Mississippi,  223. 

Clav,  Henry,  205. 

Clav,  Cassius  M.,  206,  301,  413. 

Clav,  C.  C,  56. 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  242. 

Clover  and  Grass  Seed,  37. 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  249. 

Colonization  Movements,  183. 

Colonization  Cause  Contributions,  296. 

Commercial  Cities — Southern  Commerce,  33 

Comparison  between  the  Free  and  the  SIav«   States,  \i 

Corn,  35,  69. 

Cotton,  53,  65. 

Cowper,  William,  247. 

Cragin,  A.  H.,  190. 

Curran,  John  Philpot,  250. 

Curtis,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  101. 

Darien  (Georgia)  Ftesolutions,  231. 

Davis,  Henry  Winter,  167. 

Deaths  in  the  several  States  in  1850,  297. 

DeBow,  J.  D.  B.,  30,  50,  83. 

Dublin  University  Magazine,  251. 

Emigration  to  Liberia,  183. 

Episcopal  Testimony,  261. 

Etheridge,  Emerson,  167,  173, 

ExiKJiiditures  of  the  several  States,  80. 

Exports,  283. 

Facta  and  Arguments  by  the  Wayside,  360. 

Farms, Cash  Value  of,  71. 

Faulkner,  Charles  James,  98,  175. 

Flax,  62— Flaxseed,  38. 

Fortcscue,  Sir  John,  249. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  246. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  235. 

Free  Figures  and  Slave,  281. 

Free  Wliite  Agriculturalists  in  the  Slave  States.  2U8. 


GF.NEIUI,    INI'KX.  411 


Frredom  and  b.avcry  at  tlie  Fair.  :V2-^ 

Frocilom  in  the  South,  Pro<rress  of,  ;;».7 

Fremont,  J*>hu  Charles,  170,  1212,  41ii,  U:. 

Gaston,  Judize,  of  N»>rih  Carolina.  SJ.-). 

Garden  Products,  Value  of,  oS 

G<Kthe,  254. 

Goo«ihH^  Daniel  R.,  112 

(JoUlsmilh,  Oliver,  ;>bl. 

(Ji-ahaiM,  William  H.,  lb". 

Graves,  Calvin,  ItiT. 

(iieeley,  Horace,  361. 

Grotius,  253. 

Hall,  Dr.  James.  182. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  237. 

Hammond,  Gov.,  165,  801. 

Hampden,  John,  249. 

Hari)er  Brothers,  304. 

Harrington,  James,  249. 

Hav.  63. 

Hedrick,  B.  S.,  Prof,  305,  410. 

Hemp,  53,  62. 

Henrv,  Patrick,  84,  200. 

Hildreth,  Richard,  384. 

lloflman,  H.  W..  167. 

Honey.  64. 

Hops,  62. 

Horsley,  Bisliop,  201. 

How  Slavery  can  he  Abolished,  123. 

Hunt,  Freeman,  349. 

Hurlbut,  William  Henry,  229,  316. 

illiterate  Poor  Whit«'s  of  the  Snuih,  376. 

Illiterate  White  Adults,  291,  4(i7 

Imports,  283. 

I.'dian  Corn,  35,  69. 

InhahitanUs  to  the  S<|n.'ire  Mile,  113. 

Itiveiiiiofis,  New,  PaH"i'<  i^vn..,|  ,.n    i-,  ls.V>,  2^. 

Iredell,  Judize.  210. 

Fay,  John,  Jwhj^t',  237 

Jav,  John,  Em].,  261, 

JaV,  William,  239. 

Jerterson,  Tliomas.  195,  222. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  Dr.,  248. 

Kiinsas,  Aid  for,  318. 

K<'nip,  Henry.  273. 

Lartuiitius,  255. 

Lafayette,  Gen.,  252—0   Lafayette,  262. 

Lawrence,  Abb«»tt  and  Amos,  100. 

Leigh,  Mr.,  of  Virgiira,  210. 

L.'o  X.,  2>5. 

Liberia,  Emigration  o   1^^ 


4  I  S  GENERAL    IN'DKX- 

Libraries  Other  than  Private,  289. 

Live  Stock,  Value  of,  71. 

Locke.  John,  246. 

Louis  X.,  253. 

Louisville.  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  341, 

Luther,  Martin,  25 1. 

McDcwell,  Gov.,  209. 

McLane.  of  Delaware,  215. 

Macfarland.  Wm.  II.,  167. 

Macknight,  James,  D.D.,  251. 

.Madison,  James.  82,  199. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  246. 

Manufactures,  Products  of,  284. 

Maple  Sui^ar,  63. 

Martin,  Luther,  216. 

Marshall,  Humphrey,  167 

Marshall,  Thomas,  211, 

Mason,  James  M.,  223. 

Mason,  John  W.,  384. 

Mason,  Col.,  of  Vircrinia,  208. 

Massachusetts  and  North  Carolina,  14. 

Maury,  M.  F.,  213. 

Meckienburg  Declaration  of  Independence,  221, 

Methodist  Testimony,  209. 

M.iiLia  Force  of  the'Several  States,  286. 

Miller,  H.  W.,  167. 

Jiller,  Prof.,  of  Glasgow,  251. 

Milton,  John,  248. 

Missionary  Cause  Contributions,  296. 

Monroe,  James,  200. 

Montesquieu,  252. 

Moore,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  101. 

Morehead,  John  M.,  107. 

National  Political  Power  of  the  Several  States,  292. 

Natives  of  the  Slave  States  in  the  Free  States,  and  Nati^X'«l   of     La 

Free  States  in  the  Slave  States,  304. 
New- Bedford,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  345. 
New-Orleans,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  337. 
Newspapers  and  Periodicals,  290. 
New-York  and  Virginia,  12. 
New- York  and  North  Carolina,  325. 
New-York  Citv,  Letter  from  the  Mavor  of,  336. 
Norfolk,  Letter  f.om,  344. 

North  American  and  United  States  Gazette,  87,  111,  114. 
North  Carolina'and  Massachu-?tts,  14. 
North  Carolina  and  New-York   325. 
Northern  Testimonv,  235. 
Nott.  J.  C,  Dr.  a02,  303. 
Oats,  3.5,  69. 
Oglethorpej  Gen.,  2-30. 


GEKERAL     NDEX. 


419 


Orchard  Products,  Value  of,  38. 
Patents  Issued  on  New  Inventions,  294. 
Pennsvlvatiia  and  South  Carolina,  17. 
Perrv,'B.  F.,  220. 
Pettvjohn,  Charles  3G3. 
Philadelphia,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  337. 
Piiiknev.  William,  210,  213. 
Pitt,  William,  21G. 
Plato,  230. 
Polvhius,  256. 
Pojie  Gresory  XVI.,  271. 
Po|>e  Leo  X.,  235. 

popular  Vote  for  President  in  1856,  293, 
population  of  the  Several  States,  144. 
Porteus,  Bishop,  201. 
P»)stmasters-General,  311. 
Post  Ofllce  Statistics,  2b7. 
Potat»>es,  30,  G9. 
Powell,  Mr.,  of  Virsinia,  102. 
Precepts  and  Sayings  of  the  Old  Testament,  270. 
Precepts  and  Sayings  of  the  New  Testament,  277. 
Pre>byterian  Testimony,  259. 
Presiiients  of  the  Unitetl  States,  307. 

Presidential  Elections  in  the  U.  S.  from  17*.tC  to  ISjO.  317 
Preston,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  212. 
Price,  Dr.,  of  London,  248. 
Providence,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  343. 
Railroads,  Miles  of,  in  the  Several  States,  285. 
Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke,  201. 
Randolph,  Thomas  M.,  202. 
Randolph,  Thomas  Jefferson,  202. 
Randolph,  Peyton,  204. 
Randolph,  Edmund,  204. 
Raynal,  The  Abbe,  273. 
Ray  nor,  Kenneth,  107,  100. 

Recapitulation  of  the  Quantity  and  Value  of  Bushel  Measure  Pro- 
ducts, 39-10. 
Recapitulation  of  the  Quantity  and  Value  of  Pound- Measure  Pre 

ducts,  05. 
Recapitulation  of  the  Value  of  Farms  and  Donicstic  Animals,  72. 
Real  and  Personal  Proj)criy,  80. 
lUid,  Mr.,  of  Georuia,  233. 
Revenue  of  the  Several  States,  80. 
Rice.  53,  6-5. 

Richmond,  Letter  from,  342. 
Ritchie,  Thomas,  92,  105. 
Rives,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  101,  101. 
Rousseau,  253. 

Rutlin,  Judgo,  of  North  Carolina,  221. 
Rve.  36.  O'J.    2. 


420  CFN-F.RAI,    IXDEX. 

Savannali,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  346. 

Scliools,  Public,  288. 

Scott,  Thomas,  (Common  .ator),  260. 

Secretaries  of  State.  309. 

Secretaries  of  the  Interior.  312. 

Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  313, 

Secretaries  of  War.  314. 

Secretaries  of  tlie  Navy,  315. 

Shakspeare,  247. 

Slavelvolders,  Number  of,  in  the  United  States,  146. 

Slaves,  Value  of,  at  S400  per  head,  306. 

Slavery,  Leaislative  Acts  asainst,  361. 

Slavery  Thouirhtful —Signs  of  Contrition,  365. 

Smith,' Gerrit,  318. 

Socrates,  256. 

South  Carolina  and  Pennsylvania,  17. 

Southern  Literatuie,  383. 

Southern  Testimony  atrainst  Slavery,  188. 

Speakers  of  the  House  of  RepresenLTtives,  310. 

St.  Louis,  Letter  from  the  Mayor  of,  339. 

Stanly,  Edward,  167. 

States,  the  Several,  when  First  Settled,  321-322. 

Statistics,  Science  of,  29,  30. 

Stuart,  A   H.  IL,  107. 

Summers,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  212. 

Supreme  Court,  Judges  of,  308. 

Tarver,  M.,  161. 

Taylor,  Wm.  C,  L.L  D.,  20. 

Territories,  the,  Area  and  Population  of,  115. 

Testimony  of  the  Nations,  245, 

Testimony  of  the  Churches,  258. 

Tobacco,  53,  62,  78. 

Tonnage  of  the  Several  States,  283. 

Tract  Cau.'^e  Contributions,  295. 

Underwood,  John  C,  410. 

Virsinia  and  New-Yoik,  12. 

Votes  cast  for  President  in  1856,  293.  [293 

Votes,  Classification  of,  Polled  at  the  Five  Points  Precinct  in  1856 

Walker,  Robert  J.,  105. 

Warren,  Joseph,  Gen.,  242. 

Washiuiiton,  George,  Gen.,  193. 

Way  land,  Francis,  D  D  ,  261. 

Wealth  of  the  Several  States,  80. 

Webster,  Daniel r  210. 

Webster,  Noah,  117,  241,  384. 

Wesley,  John,  Rev.,  269, 

Weston,  George  M.,  164. 

Wheat,  35,  69,  78.  ' 

Whv  the  North  has  surpass  'd  the  South. 

Wise    Henry  A.,  13,  9(\  102. 


